New Delhi: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat reached Delhi Monday amid mounting pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership to replace him ahead of the assembly elections in the state next year.
According to sources, Rawat was summoned by the central leadership to Delhi after two central party observers — former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and national general secretary Dushyant Gautam — visited Dehradun Saturday to take feedback from all stakeholders. The observers also met the MLAs, ministers, and held a meeting with RSS leaders in Uttarakhand. The observers submitted a report to party chief J.P. Nadda Monday.
In Delhi, a meeting is on between Home Minister Amit Shah, Nadda and BJP national general secretary B.L. Santhosh.
All BJP MLAs in Uttarakhand have been asked to reach Dehradun Tuesday. The meeting of the legislature party may take place Wednesday.
What the observers say
According to sources, the two observers, in their report, raised concerns over the state of affairs in Uttarakhand. The observers said the chief minister has been failing to inspire the MLAs and is losing his grip over the state.
A BJP leader said complaints regarding Rawat’s functioning had been pouring in from all quarters. “He is a non-performer and was unable to have everyone on board. At the same time, there was a lack of coordination with the organisation as well as the MLAs. A few ministers had complained that he was interfering in their departments too,” he said.
According to a source, the report also said that the MLAs highlighted overall resentment with Rawat’s style of functioning and his lack of control over the administration. “Some of the MLAs are of the view that if the next year’s elections are contested under him the party will struggle,” the source added.
Rawat will present his position on concerns over his functioning as the chief minister.
Another state BJP MLA told ThePrint that Rawat’s uninspiring leadership can damage the party’s prospects in 2022 assembly elections.
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Leadership change
Since the formation of Uttarakhand from Uttar Pradesh in 2000, both the BJP and the Congress have often changed CMs during their rule. Many leaders, however, feel that a change in the leadership may affect party’s prospects in the upcoming assembly elections in other states.
Another senior BJP leader pointed out that what is key for the central leadership is the fact whether Rawat can ensure a victory for the party next year.
“His tenure has been corruption-free but his leadership is uninspiring. A number of MLAs have been talking about how he has no control over matters of governance and it is the bureaucracy that is ruling the state.”
Even as party chief Bansidhar Bhagat has maintained that there is no such move to remove the chief minister, some names, including Satpal Maharaj, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni, are doing the rounds.
According to another party leader, the political crisis comes at a time when the BJP has to prepare for the assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, and removing a chief minister at this juncture will be bad optics.
“The BJP high command has to take all these things into consideration and assess what exactly it will gain by removing the CM at this juncture. At the same time it can’t risk losing the assembly elections that will be held next year,” the party leader said.
Another senior Uttarakhand leader said at this stage the party needs to assess gains and losses. “Both examples are in front of the party. Despite knowing the unpopularity of Raghubar Das we didn’t remove him and we lost the election. In Uttarakhand, ‘Nishank’ was removed and B.C. Khanduri was made the CM, but we lost by a slim margin due to internal sabotage. So we have to do cost benefit analysis before any decision,” he said.
Dushyant Gautam has also denied change of leadership in the state. “Every state party leader has aspiration and having aspiration is not bad. We have discussed the issue with state leadership and we will correct any shortcomings but there is no issue of changing leadership is on the card,” he said.
Earlier, speaking to news agency ANI, Rawat had said: “I don’t know what you (media) are saying but I have sought time from the national party leadership. I will go to meet them when they would call me”.
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Unclear what the selection criteria are, for entrusting the welfare of the citizens of a state to a handpicked individual. Consider the CM of Tripura.