Express News Service
DEHRADUN: After state cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat announced his resignation along with another MLA on Friday late evening, the state Bhartiya Janta Party president denied this saying the issues will be sorted soon.
“For me the position of cabinet minister is nothing in comparison to the service for people. My demand for medical college in Kotdwar has been ignored for long now,” said Harak Singh Rawat confirming his resignation.
Though no resignation letter was received by the Governor of Uttarakhand till the time of writing this report.
Sources from the Congress claimed that he was in Delhi yesterday and might join the Congress on Saturday in Haridwar in presence of former CHief Minister Harish Rawat or even later.
However, state BJP president has denied any such thing. “If there is any issue, it will be resolved soon. No one is resigning from the party or cabinet post,” said Madan Kaushik, state BJP president who was in Gopeshwar and will be teaching Dehradun on Saturday morning.
The state forest minister reportedly resignef in anger while the cabinet was on meeting in the state secretariat.
Another BJP MLA Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’ was also rumored to resign from the party which the MLA himself denied saying that he is the ‘Soldier’ of the BJP.
Interestingly, Harak Singh Rawat led rebellion against the then Harish Rawat government in year 2016 when nine rebel MLAs including Harak Singh Rawat left the Congress and joined the BJP. Kau was also among the rebels.
Later, all nine contested on BJP ticket winning the 2017 assembly elections. Many of them including Rawat were given cabinet berth in the BJP government
Earlier this month, with talks of Harak Singh Rawat meeting Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, rumors of four other rebel leaders who left Congress to join Bhartiya Janta Party in year 2016 have been abuzz in power corridors of the hill state.
However, political analysts say the minister in question is know for playing ‘pressure politics’.
In October this year, former state cabinet minister Yashpal Arya who was cabinet minister in the incumbent BJP government joined Congress with his son Sanjiv Arya who won Nainital assembly seat in 2017 state assembly elections.
Arya had left Congress in January 2017 to join the BJP. He won the 2017 state assembly elections from Bajpur seat of Udham Singh Nagar district while his son won the elections to become MLA from Nainital assembly seat of Nainital district.
The state BJP has been in alert mode since then. The BJP and the Congress remain at their competitive best to snatch each other’s leaders as the state assembly elections approach.
In an interview with TNIE, Harish Rawat when asked about allowing the rebels join the Congress back had said that the rebels must accept their ‘Crime Against Democracy’.
“Look, they all have committed crime against the democracy. And in democracy if anyone accepts their mistake their apology must be accepted. But they just admit the crime against democracy which they committed. Also, we know there is a ruckus in the BJP and they also realize now that they are stuck in the wrong party,” the former CM had said.
Later, Harak Singh Rawat had said that he and Harish Rawat are two brothers. The former went even ahead stating that his place is always at his (Harish Rawat) feet as a younger brother.
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