As Suspense Continues, BJP Mulls if Time Is Right to Pluck T.S. Rawat Out of Uttarakhand

As the CM faces anger from party MLAs, and MPs in the state, an irked RSS could also push BJP towards a decision to replace him.

New Delhi: The suspense surrounding the survival of Trivendra Singh Rawat as chief minister of Uttarakhand continued on Monday, March 8, as Bharatiya Janata Party leaders held discussions with him and several disgruntled party legislators and ministers in Delhi.

While some believe that his ouster is now a certainty, the biggest factor that may ultimately tilt the scales in Rawat’s favour is that the assembly elections in the state are now less than a year away.

According to BJP sources, the recent round of trouble for Rawat – who was handpicked by party leadership to lead the government in the state following the 2017 election win – began with more than 20 of the 57 legislators of the party turning against him. Many came to Delhi and began meeting senior party leaders to coax them into replacing him with another face.

The main grouse of most disgruntled party MLAs, MPs and ministers with Rawat has been his style of functioning. “He works with a select few MLAs and has never bothered to reach out to the other leaders,” said a party source.

Decisions

This apart, several of Rawat’s decisions have also irked senior BJP leaders and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the state. He recently created a new commissionerate in Gairsain, the new summer capital of the state, making it the third administrative division in the state. This annoyed a large number of people from the Kumaon region because Almora, which is considered the cultural capital of Kumaon, was also included in this.

Among those critical of the Rawat government’s move has been former state BJP president and now MP from Nainital, Ajay Bhatt. Party leaders said Rawat did not bother to consult them before taking this all-important decision.

In fact, they accused him of also not consulting anyone before he decided to shift the summer capital to Gairsain. Though the Gairsain secretariat was developed atop a hill before Rawat became the chief minister, party leaders insisted that taking everyone into confidence would have helped.

Also read: Is the Uttarakhand Tragedy Tied to Rawat Govt’s Move to Reduce Water Flow from Hydro Projects?

A few other decisions of Rawat have also annoyed the RSS. These include the opening of a distillery in Rudraprayag, curtailing the Kumbh Mela celebrations in Hardwar, and bringing all the major shrines which are part of the Char Dham Yatra under a Devasthanom Board that is run by the government.

Style of functioning

Another issue which went against Rawat was the lathicharge on some people protesting against state road projects in Nainital. Last year too there were protests by some legislators against Rawat which had echoed all the way down in New Delhi.

At that point in time, party MLA Puran Singh Fartyal had protested against the state government’s decision to re-allocate the construction work of Tanakpur-Jauljibi (TJ) road to the same contractor who was blacklisted in 2017. Another MLA Umesh Sharma Kau from Dehradun had written a protest note to party president J.P. Nadda saying his constituency was being neglected and no development work was taking place there. Yet another legislator, Bishan Singh Chuphal, had charged that bureaucrats were not even listening to the MLAs.

Some MLAs in talks with AAP, Congress

Over a period this disenchantment with Rawat grew in the state. According to party sources, about five or six legislators and one minister were so annoyed with him that they are thinking of joining the Aam Aadmi Party, which under its senior leader and Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, has decided to contest the next Assembly elections with all earnest.

This apart, several BJP MLAs, who had crossed over from the Congress into the party, are also learnt to be in touch with leaders of their former party.

However, with the numbers stacked in its favour, the BJP, which has 56 MLAs in the 70-member House, is not worried about any harm coming to it in the short run.

Dehradun

With resentment brewing among the party legislators and around a dozen of them camping in Delhi, the BJP central leadership sent two senior observers to Dehradun on Saturday. Another trigger for the action was that some party legislators had started exploring if by-elections would be held to their constituencies if they were to resign now.

The visit of BJP general secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand Dushyant Kumar Gautam and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, who was appointed to look after the current crisis within the party’s Uttarakhand unit, took many by surprise, especially since it came when the assembly session was in progress in Gairsain.

The two leaders met several party legislators, MPs Mala Rajya Laxmi, Ajay Bhatt and Naresh Bansal and some ministers on Sunday. Rawat, who was in Gairsain, also flew to Dehradun to meet the two central observers.

Following the emergency core group meeting on Sunday, Raman Singh had ruled out a change in leadership, saying, “Only some party issues were discussed. No change in state leadership was on the table.”

The BJP state president Bansidhar Bhagat also tried to play down the context of the meeting, saying it was held to “discuss and take important decisions with regard to the working committee meeting of the state BJP to be held here on March 13 and 14. The state-wide functions with completion of four years of the state government on March 18 will also be discussed in the meeting”.

Also read: CBI to Probe Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Rawat’s Role in 2016 Corruption Case

Rawat summoned to Delhi

However, according to sources, some churning is still taking place within the party. They said the fact that Rawat has been summoned to Delhi by the party central leadership and is expected to meet Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda today, March 8, shows that all is not well with him. The two observers are, in the meantime, also learnt to have submitted their report to senior party leaders.

The developments have also led to speculation around who could replace Rawat if the party decided to stem dissent by bringing in a new face before the next elections. Among the leaders who are said to be in contention for the post are Union education minister and former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Uttarakhand minister and MLA from Srinagar (Garhwal) Dhan Singh Rawat, state cabinet minister and activist Satpal Maharaj, Rajya Sabha MP and BJP’s national spokesperson Anil Baluni and Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt are also in the running.

While some party leaders insist that a decision to replace Rawat may already have been taken at a high-level meeting a couple of days ago, there have also been media reports that the parliamentary board of the party may take up the issue during a meeting on March 9.