Though Uttarakhand Assembly elections are still 3.5 years ahead but the Lok SABHA elections are indeed near and after the massive victory in Karnataka legislative Assembly the moral of the largest opposition party in Uttarakhand as well as Delhi has enhanced with one if its senior most leaders and former CM Harish Rawat announcing to give up his permanent stay in Delhi and shift to Uttarakhand permanently to serve Uttarakhand Congress and the electorates of Haridwar and Almora in particular who had been immensely instrumental in raising his political clout as, MP and Congress leader in the past, though he lost from here as well.
Uttarakhand Congress is today divided tremendously in several factions and Harish Rawat is one of the factions.
However, he had been extremely mobile and proactive before and after 2018 and never been to sabbatical but enjoying the climate, serene beauty and environment while participating in political events, regularly. Rawat is currently the CWC member, was the Assam and Punjab state in charge and general secretary of AICC but the party couldn’t gain anything in both these states despite his best efforts. In Punjab not only the Congress was vertically divided between several factions but it lost badly at the hands of AAM ADMI PARTY and former credible Congress CM Amrinder Singh first leaving Congress, forming his own party and finally joining BJP.
Apart from this setback in Uttarakhand too when Harish Rawat was the chief minister he sidelined former CM Vijay Bahuguna to make himself the CM and also led to majority of the Congress MLAs leaving him and his party joining the saffron party BJP.
He had lost two assembly elections while caretaker CM in 2018 and also from Lal Quan assembly seat in 2022, finally his party too losing hands down for the second time.
However, Rawat never took the moral responsibility for these defeats and continued to be active in Uttarakhand politics till date participating in dharnas, protest demonstrations, throwing pahadi meal parties etc. to keep everyone in good humour and under good impression.
After Karnataka election victory former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat has posted a new post in his Facebook account to declare that he is now making Uttarakhand hus, permanent base and leaving Delhi forever, which says as below : Dear brothers and sisters – Some days before through my Facebook post I had mentioned two things. I will make Delhi my permanent stay to politically serve people. I will commence small Yatras appealing people to associate them with Congress. My decision to stay in Delhi was to reactivate my political, social workers friends – colleagues , trade unionists and people of Uttarakhand living in Delhi NCR and connect with them. After some efforts I arrived at the decision that this was too expensive a task and a tiring affair. For me, to bear the expenses and physically involve here is neigh to impossible. For me to arrange for the expenses and involve physicaly in socio political activities have become impossible. Therefore, I have now decided to change my earlier plans and be stay out in Uttarakhand for the rest of the years of my life. I have finally made up my mind to function from Uttarakhand by living them permanently and functioning as a Reserve player of Player on call of the Congress party, obviously. You are all aware that I had several decades of connection with the people and soil of Uttarakhand in my capacity as a political worker in every village, block, Tehsil, markets and districts. In my entire political journey, the Congress Party, Almora, Haridwar and its inhabitants have been of great help and support. Their contribution had been immeasurable. I want to dedicate my rest of the life to Almora and Haridwar. In my first initiative I want to commemorate ” CONGRESS SE JUDIYE YAATRA”, CONNECT WITH THE CONGRESS JOURNEY “.THIS Yatra won’t be a big affairs but would be with few people and I would appeal one and all to join Congress. On the way I will hold press conferences, debates, interactions and address meetings. This way of life to pay OFF the debt of the the people will be the best one, I suppose wrote Harish Rawat in his FB post.
Sources reveal that in view of the general elections of 2024 nearing , former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat seems to be worried as he want to ensure that he gets parliamentary ticket from Haridwar his old constituency from where his daughter too is one of the MLA from rural Haridwar seat. Rawat’s maximum participation in Haridwar in various sit ins and protest demonstrations including closed door meetings etc unambiguously speak of the fact that his recent statement regarding permanently shifting to Uttarakhand n serve the electorates of Haridwar and Almora is nothing but reviving these two parliamentary seats to contest from one of them.
Leaving some ups and downs, the former chief minister of Uttarakhand Harish Rawat is highly praised in entire Uttarakhand for his manipulative tactics that on the one hand he was always successful in keeping his political rivals in place or forcing them to leave the party, on the other hand from his youth till the age of 75 he always, remained active in the politics of centre and the state relentlessly struggle while in opposition holding the posts of chief minister, union minister, General secretary of the party, CWC member, chief of state election , MLA, MP, Sewa Dal Vice Chairman and central minister and is, still active today as well, keeping everyone in good humour.
Leave a Reply