New Delhi: The Congress’s organisational rejig in Uttarakhand—a bid to step out of ex-CM Harish Rawat’s shadow—has exposed the fault lines in the party, casting a shadow on its ability to put its house in order and mount a serious challenge to the BJP in the state.
The BJP has ruled the state since 2017. Uttarakhand goes to the polls, early in 2027.
Last week, the party appointed Ganesh Godiyal as its Uttarakhand unit’s president, replacing Karan Mahra. Returning to the Congress from the BJP in 2022, Harak Singh Rawat has been made the chair of the party’s election management committee. Pritam Singh has been given the charge of the campaign committee for the Congress’s Uttarakhand unit.
However, the appointments, particularly those of Godiyal and Harak Singh Rawat, appear not to have gone down well with Harish Rawat. A central figure in the Uttarakhand Congress’s factional politics, the former CM has been airing his disappointment in subtle but unmistakable ways.
Over the past two days, the veteran leader has made several public statements, requesting that Godiyal appoint him as a booth in-charge. His requests, he has expressed, stem from his wish to work at the grassroots to strengthen the party. Meanwhile, he has dismissed suggestions that the remarks reflect sarcasm or frustration at being sidelined.
On 19 November, Rawat went public with his request on social media, saying that the new appointments made him wonder where he should work. “Suddenly, it occurred to me that Harish Rawat, you have been doing something or the other at the highest level for so many years now, why not work at the grassroots level this time?” the former CM’s X post said, setting off a buzz in the state’s political circles.
On Friday, he reiterated his request through another X post, adding this time that his comments should not be viewed as a power move on his part. “The party gave me everything. Even today, my admirers define it in their own way, and my critics define it in their own way(s). When that party is going through a challenging phase, doesn’t it become my duty to offer my services to strengthen it at the grassroots level?” Rawat wrote.
A permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Rawat emphasised that even today, he, along with Karan Mahra and Pritam Singh, holds the highest positions at the party’s central level. While Mahra is a new inductee into the party’s highest decision-making forum as a special invitee, Pritam Singh is one of the Congress’s Central Election Committee (CEC) members.
Harish Rawat, however, bypassed commenting on Harak Singh Rawat’s appointment as the head of the party’s election management committee in his X post.
In 2016, the latter was accused by the then-CM Harish Rawat of attempting to bring down his government by engineering defections. Subsequently, Harak Singh Rawat had switched over to the BJP, where he had remained till January 2022, when the party expelled him.
Earlier this week, Harak Singh Rawat, who has been vocal against the Pushkar Singh Dhami government and stands accused of corruption in both CBI and ED cases, took a veiled jibe at Harish Rawat. The Congress, he said, should stop banking on “spent cartridges”.
Speaking to reporters, Harish Rawat hit back, stressing that political parties should value everyone. He called those who made remarks, such as Harak Singh Rawat’s, about their colleagues “venomous”. Even the BJP has such people, he said. “That’s why I told my party that I am an old man, my job is to keep coughing so that no wrong person enters the party. I also told them, whatever venom you have, pass it on to me, I will swallow it. You just praise each other, encourage each other, and move forward,” he added.
These exchanges frame the challenge before Godiyal as the chief of a faction-ridden Congress unit, especially significant ahead of the 2027 assembly polls.
The Congress party has suffered defeats in the last two assembly elections in 2017 and 2022, respectively. It has also drawn a blank in three consecutive Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Once considered close to Harish Rawat, two-term MLA Godiyal served as the state unit chief in the run-up to the 2022 polls. After the party’s defeat, Mahra replaced him.
Earlier this year, Harish Rawat publicly suggested that the Congress should fight the next assembly elections under the leadership of Pritam Singh, a five-time MLA—a remark that reportedly left Godiyal annoyed.
Harish Rawat’s complicated equations with state leaders are not new.
Even when the Congress governed Uttarakhand, he was locked in prolonged tussles. First, it was with N.D. Tiwari, and later, with former CM Vijay Bahuguna, whom Harish Rawat eventually replaced in 2014. The change had come amid criticism over Bahuguna’s handling of the June 2013 Kedarnath disaster.
The recent inductions of Mahra into the CWC and Pritam Singh into the CEC are widely being seen as attempts by the Congress high command to balance the competing factions in the state. It has also been to keep Harish Rawat—despite his displeasure—closely tethered to the central leadership.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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