Sulking Rawat to lead Congress’ Uttarakhand campaign, decision on CM face after polls

Congress on Friday brought peace in its Uttarakhand unit ahead of Assembly elections by assigning sulking Harish Rawat the leader of the poll campaign even as it stopped short of announcing him as the Chief Minister face.

However, it has been made clear that Rawat may not have a free-run in the ticket distribution, a crucial area where the party leadership fears a free hand to one leader could create trouble.

The decision to make Rawat the Chairman of the party’s campaign committee came during a meeting held by former party president Rahul Gandhi with senior leaders of the state, two days after the former Chief Minister created a flutter by tweeting that he was contemplating retirement from politics as the party organisation was not helping him.

Soon after Rawat’s tweets, Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala spoke to him over the phone followed by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, with whom the Congress veteran shared his concerns.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal later spoke to him and invited him for a meeting in Delhi on Friday with Rahul, who was in his constituency for the past two days. Sources said the immediate response from the top leadership was reassuring for Rawat, as the party was known for dilly-dallying on its response to the emerging inner-party crisis.

“All of us are together,” Rawat told reporters after the nearly two-and-half-hour meeting at Rahul’s residence, attended by party in-charge Devender Yadav, Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godhiyal and Legislature Party leader Pritam Singh among others.

Also read: Uttarakhand Cong president says he has similar feelings as Rawat

Yadav said Rawat is a senior and experienced leader and he has been given an important responsibility. “There are no differences within the party though there could be some opinion about the style of functioning of people,” he said.

Godhiyal said all issues raised by Rawat have been resolved and the Congress High Command has asked us to ensure that all cooperation is extended to him for a “free campaign”. Some changes are also suggested and will be carried out, he said.

While the party leadership is aware of the hold Rawat has in the state, sources said it is wary of giving Rawat a free hand in ticket distribution, as it could alienate several others in the party.

Rawat was not enthusiastic with the Screening Committee touring the state to zero in on potential candidates, as usually these panels sit in Delhi and decide on the panel of candidates to be submitted to the Central Election Committee headed by party president Sonia Gandhi.

Sources said the message from the meeting to Rawat was to not go public with his grievances and not aggravate the crisis at a time party’s internal survey has shown an “edge” for the party in the upcoming elections with the ruling BJP facing “immense” anti-incumbency.

However, they said that the party has given enough indications that it acknowledges Rawat has the claim to the seat of Chief Minister. Rawat should be returning to Dehradun with such an assurance, a senior leader said.

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