Congress may replace Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna
Speculations are also mounting about unfolding strains in the relationship between the Congress and NC
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New Delhi: The Congress may replace Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna to quell persistent discontent in the party’s local unit, two people familiar with the development said after top Congress leaders met in Delhi on Wednesday to discuss Uttarakhand and strains with long-term ally, the National Conference (NC), in Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other functionaries who met in the morning are expected to soon finalize the decision for a change of guard in Uttarakhand.
Bahuguna became chief minister after the Congress emerged as the single largest party, squeezing ahead of rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by just one seat, in elections to the state assembly in March 2012. He has been facing severe criticism for alleged non-performance since taking over.
Bahuguna was picked by the party’s national leadership despite current Union water resources minister Harish Rawat claiming more support in the state’s party unit.
The party won 32 seats in the 70-member assembly but secured a majority with the backing of three members of the Bahujan Samaj Party, three independents and the sole legislator belonging to the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal.
Bahuguna’s handling of relief work after floods swept the state last year is thought to have so damaged the party’s image that it could hurt it in the general election due by May.
The June flash flood and subsequent relief work delayed the process of a change of guard in Uttarakhand, which has five Lok Sabha seats.
Disgruntled legislators and other Congress members from the state have been regularly meeting central party leaders in Delhi over the past six months to press for Bahuguna’s ouster.
According to one of the two leaders cited above, the party is keen not to disturb existing caste and social equations while selecting Bahuguna’s replacement and revamping the state unit. The regional balancing between Garhwal and Kumaon could also be a factor in these decisions. The leader declined to be named.
Several state leaders, including Bahuguna, have been camping in the national capital for the last two days and have held meetings with central party leaders. Among the names that are doing the rounds as Bahuguna’s replacement are Harish Rawat, state assembly speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal and Pritam Singh. Indira Hridayesh is also understood to have staked claim for the top post.
Present at the meeting on Wednesday, apart from Sonia Gandhi, were Ambika Soni, the party’s general secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir; Ghulam Nabi Azad, Janardan Dwivedi, in charge of Uttarakhand, and Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress chief. After the meeting, party leaders said that a decision on whether or not Bahuguna will continue as chief minister will be taken soon.
Meanwhile, there has been mounting speculation about unfolding strains in the relationship between the Congress and its ally NC after the Congress opposed Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s call to create some 700 new administrative units in the state ahead of the general election and polls to the state assembly in October-November.
NC leaders have been quoted as saying that the chief minister would step down if the Congress does not agree to his proposal.
A Congress leader who is familiar with the development said the state Congress unit is vehemently opposed to the scheme, preferring instead to empower the elected sarpanchs in the state. “The state leaders are not very interested in facing the Lok Sabha elections with the NC. But the leadership is very particular that the alliance is intact," he said, requesting anonymity.
On Wednesday, NC leader and Union minister Farooq Abdullah said his party would split with the Congress “if the need arises".
If Omar Abdullah resigns—which Congress leaders in New Delhi rule out, saying the NC is “just posturing"—the state will go under governor’s rule, which could pave way for early state elections.
Meanwhile, with opinion polls suggesting a public backlash against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the Lok Sabha election, its allies appear to be getting jittery.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Union minister of heavy industries and public enterprises Praful Patel on Wednesday was seen as giving a clean chit to the opposition BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi blamed him for the 2002 anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat.
Patel told journalists in New Delhi, “We are in an era when we believe that the judicial system is the final recourse to getting justice on any issue or to bring finality to any controversy and if the judicial system has given any pronouncement, we ought to respect it. We will not question it further."
Gandhi had attacked Modi in a television interview on Tuesday, accusing his government of abetting the riots.
PTI contributed to this story.
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