Uttarakhand polls: Congress stays mum on Harish Rawat as CM, says 'Will decide post-polls'

After Punjab, now confusion over the CM face for Uttarakhand in 2022 has begun in Congress. The party's in-charge Devender Yadav said that while Rawat was an experienced leader, the choice of CM will be a collective call post-election. Rawat, who was Uttarakhand CM from 2013-2017, was instrumental in bringing a thaw between Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh and rebel MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu.  Uttarakhand is set to go to polls in February 2022.

Congress mum on Harish Rawat as CM

On Thursday, Uttarakhand Congress underwent a reshuffle with Ganesh Godiyal taking over the mantle from Pritam Singh as state party chief. While Singh has been named Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, Rawat was named the Campaign Committee leader for Uttarakhand. Four new working presidents have also been named -  Jeet Ram, Bhuwan Kapri, Tilak Raj Behar, and Ranjit Rawat.

AAP pitches Kothiyal as CM face

While Congress is unsure of its CM face, AAP pitched Col. (Retd) Ajay Kothiyal as its presumptive Chief Ministerial candidate on Thursday. Comparing Kothiyal - who AAP has dubbed as 'Bhole Ke Fauji' - to the current CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia claimed that Kothiyal was a patriot while Dhami was corrupt. Addressing a press conference in Roorkee, Sisodia, lambasted both BJP and Congress for consecutively running corrupt govts in the hilly state.

Uttarakhand's CM shuffling

Since the formation of the hilly state from Uttar Pradesh in 2000, both BJP and Congress which have ruled the state have often changed their CMs, resulting in their electoral loss in the next election. As per reports, Nityanand Swami, who was the state's first CM was replaced with Bhagat Singh Koshyari in 2002. On coming to power, Congress chose Narayan Dutt Tiwari - who completed his full term. In 2007, 2009 and 2011, BJP had two CMs Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal. Similarly, after the 2013 Kedarnath flash-floods, Congress replaced CM Vijay Bahuguna with Harish Rawat leading to its loss in 2017.

Recently, 45-year-old Pushkar Singh Dhami took over as the new Uttarakhand CM at the BJP's MLA meeting after Tirath Singh Rawat resigned citing 'constitutional constraints'. Dhami, the Khatima MLA, has served as the State President of the BJP youth wing BYJM and a close aide of outgoing CM Rawat and Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari.  Rawat replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat in March 2021, ten days before the completion of his govt's 4 years, amid resentment among cabinet members.