Uttarakhand Minister Harak Singh Rawat has been in contact with the Congress and is expected to join the party, according to party sources. Harak Singh Rawat, a cabinet minister, has already resigned, according to reports. Some MLAs are said to have resigned from the Kotdwar MLA. During the conference, cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal, however, refuted all of the allegations. In recent months, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has met with Congress MLA Pritam Singh on multiple occasions. Rawat allegedly stormed out of the governing BJP’s state Cabinet meeting at the secretariat on Friday, citing “government delay” over a proposed medical college in his Kotdwar seat.
Read also: BJP rebels in touch with us, but Cong not in a hurry: Harish Rawat
The Kotdwar MLA also voiced his displeasure with the government’s inaction on his demand for permission of a medical college in Kotdwar, which he blamed on Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s Bharatiya Janata Party government. Rawat has previously served as an MLA in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, and has been a member of the Indian National Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party. In 2017, he defected to the Saffron party and won the assembly seat in Kotdwar.
Read also: Harish Rawat meets Rahul Gandhi, wants to quit as Punjab Cong in-charge
Rawat was a Congress candidate in the 2014 general election from Garhwal. The BJP defeated the Harish Rawat-led Congress administration in the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly election, obtaining 57 seats in the 70-member House. The elections in 2022 are projected to be a triangle battle between the BJP, the Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party. Colonel (retd.) Ajay Kothiyal has been named as the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, while Pushkar Dhami is expected to lead the saffron party. On Friday, the Congress announced that former Chief Minister Harish Rawat will lead the party in the next elections.
