Who will benefit from Uttarakhand's insurgency?

New Delhi: Harak Singh Rawat has been a senior politician from Uttarakhand, but his political history shows that he is not surviving in a party for long. Harak Singh Rawat, a student of Garhwal University, is the only leader from Uttarakhand who has contested and won elections from Pauri to Lansdowne and Rudraprayag to Kotdwar.

Uttarakhand Politics:

Harak Singh Rawat made it to all these parties, BJP, BSP, and Congress. Harak Singh Rawat was a cabinet minister in the governments of Uttarakhand, a newly formed state from undivided Uttar Pradesh, and was also a contender for the chief minister's post. But somewhere the trust relationship between the parties and them could not be strengthened, which never made their bid smooth and they kept changing from one cradle to another.

In Uttar Pradesh, the situation in Uttarakhand is also getting difficult for the BJP which is trying to handle the insurgency. Mla and Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat, who has been raising his voice against the party for the past several days, has not only been sacked from the government but has also been expelled from the party for six years. According to state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Harak Singh Rawat was pressurizing the party demanding tickets for family members including him. He says that we have a different policy, we have decided that in elections, only one person from one family will be given a ticket.

In the same family, we will not give 2 tickets or 3 tickets because our party has been against it. Now, the BJP may have made a one-ticket rule from one family for the Uttarakhand elections, but the BJP has never been seen practically against the dynasty. The party has a large list of people from the same family who have reached the Assembly and Parliament. In fact, the BJP was looking at an opportunity to expel Harak Singh Rawat and as a ticket distribution, it got the reason on the basis of which Rawat's expulsion seemed reasonable.

Harak Singh Rawat was among those who joined the BJP along with Vijay Bahuguna and many other Congress leaders when the Uttarakhand Congress rebelled in 2016. This led to Congress losing to the BJP in the 2017 elections. Mr. Rawat must have hoped that he could be made chief minister. In the Uttarakhand government, the BJP formed three chief ministers in five years, two of whom were formed last year. But Harak Singh Rawat still did not get a chance. Meanwhile, his bitterness continued to grow with the BJP. He had earlier threatened to quit the party demanding the opening of a medical college in Kotdwar, and the BJP kept persuading and stopping him in view of his political stature. The BJP knows how deadly the revolt can prove before the elections. But the BJP, which has been playing defensively so far, showed aggression and issued an overnight order to expel Harak Singh Rawat.

The BJP has taken a tough decision but the decision could weigh heavily on it. Hurt by his expulsion, Harak Singh Rawat cried in front of the media saying that they have not been able to do anything in the last five years. Employment has not been given, development has not been done, on the contrary, inflation has increased. So they had to be removed with some allegations or the other. At the same time, Mr. Rawat has categorically said that Congress is going to form an absolute majority government in Uttarakhand in next month's assembly elections and will continue to work for Congress unconditionally. In Uttar Pradesh, all leaders who have parted ways with the BJP have accused the Yogi government of neglecting Dalits, backward, and minorities. In Uttarakhand, Harak Singh Rawat has been accusing the BJP government of not doing anything in five years. At the same time, they are raising the issue of price rise. Earlier, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur had cited price rise as the reason for the defeat in by-polls in Himachal Pradesh. These allegations may have been leveled at the State level, but they will also have an impact at the national level. Somewhere in it, the finger is rising on the Modi government.

Prime Minister Modi has visited Uttar Pradesh in the recent past, he has also visited Uttarakhand, and assured the people of the use and benefits of both mountain water and youth. But when the party has to change its Chief Ministers again and again, when many sitting MLAs consider cutting their tickets and when a cabinet minister is expelled like this, it will send a message of resentment and distrust within the party to the people. This situation is not good for the BJP. Harak Singh Rawat may have been expelled from the party for whatever reason, but when he is claiming that there is anti-incumbency for the BJP in the state, his claim cannot be ignored as he has been a leader who recognizes the wind. Now that he is also ready to work with Harish Rawat, it clearly means that the congress in the state is good. Now it will be interesting to see how Congress capitalizes on this opportunity and how the BJP deals with the crisis.