Congress leaders say the party high command has failed to iron out differences within its Uttarakhand unit, mainly between former CM Harish Rawat & leader of opposition Pritam Singh.
Dehradun: Intense factionalism within the Uttarakhand Congress and the central leadership’s failure to remedy it may squander the party’s chances of coming back to power in the assembly elections next year.
The Congress’ central leadership has failed in ironing out factional feuds in its Uttarakhand unit, mainly between former chief minister Harish Rawat and his followers, and Pritam Singh, leader of opposition in the state assembly, party leaders say.
Singh was president of the state unit till 22 July before taking up the role of the leader of opposition. The Congress replaced him with former MLA Ganesh Godiyal in an attempt to rein in the differences between Singh and Harish Rawat.
Multiple state Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to said, requesting anonymity, that the party high command needs to go the extra mile to keep warring factions in check if it wants the party to win the state back from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2022.
One such senior Congress functionary who did not wish to be named said, “The party’s first big challenge is to overcome infighting, then take on the BJP. It is sad, but true. Voters in Uttarakhand want to see the BJP out of power for five years of misrule, but here the Congress is facing a crisis of unity as factional leaders don’t want to see eye-to-eye. We may lose the opportunity to win if we don’t address the rot.”
Rawat versus Singh and the rest of the Congress
State Congress leaders believe that the Harish Rawat faction has taken control of almost every significant office in the state unit after Godiyal, known to be his loyalist, replaced Singh as the state president.
Speaking to ThePrint, political analyst Jai Singh Rawat said, “Although the Singh faction was able to have a say in the appointments of four working presidents, an unprecedented event in the Uttarakhand Congress unit, his supporters are maintaining a distance from the state party office and its organisational activities.”
“Three of the four working presidents — Ranjit Rawat, Bhuwan Kapdi, and Jeetram — are known to be detractors of (Harish) Rawat and are mostly only seen at party functions organised in Singh’s leadership. The Congress leadership in Delhi will have to do some serious thinking before the situation gets out of hand,” he added.
The senior Uttarakhand Congress functionary quoted above also said Harish Rawat felt snubbed when Devendra Yadav, the Uttarakhand in charge of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), did not invite him to a meeting on 17 August regarding Parivartan Yatra rallies planned in Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts.
The four-day ‘ParivartanYatra’ will begin from CM Pushkar Singh Dhami’s assembly constituency Khatima on 3 September and end in Rudrapur on 6 September.
“The situation has worsened to the extent that party workers have even started talking about how if the infighting is not reined in we may have to leave the 2022 polls and think of 2027 elections instead,” he added.
‘Things not as bad as being made out to be’
There is, however, a section of leaders who believe that talks of infighting within the state Congress are exaggerated.
Jot Singh Bisht, vice president of the Uttarakhand Congress, told ThePrint, “Things are not as bad as they are being made out to be. The AICC leadership has already done its bit to mitigate differences by changing the state Congress president and appointing a new leader of opposition in the house. All senior leaders have been allocated their respective tasks and are working with a common goal to dislodge the incumbent BJP government in the state.”
Shankarchand Ramola, another vice president of the state party unit, acknowledged that there are differences between some Congress leaders, but said things are moving in the right direction ever since the reshuffle in the party ranks in July.
“Things are moving in the right direction after the new state president took over. Congress leaders do have differences but they need to rise above it. It’s not about their individual interests but for the Congress party. We hope they come together to defeat the common enemy, BJP, in the coming days,” he said.
Uttarakhand Congress spokesperson Mathura Dutt Joshi denied any factionalism within the state Congress. “There is no factionalism in the party. All the Congress workers and leaders will join hands to fight our common enemy, BJP. This will be seen at the Parivartan rally that will begin from CM’s constituency Khatima.”
