Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday hinted at trouble within the party, ahead of the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly elections, saying in a series of tweets that the party organisation had turned its back on him.
He said the powers that be had let “crocodiles” loose in the sea that he had to navigate, which he termed the “sea of elections” in another tweet.
While Mr. Rawat hinted at taking sanyas, a Congress source said the move could be interpreted as a pressure tactic to gain more of a say in ticket selection and name him as the chief ministerial candidate. The source added that party’s Uttarakhand in-charge Devender Yadav was reaching out to Mr. Rawat.
In one of his tweets, Mr. Rawat asked: “Isn’t it strange that we have to swim in the sea of elections and the organisational structure for cooperation in most places, instead of extending a hand in cooperation, is either turning its back or playing a negative role.”
Mr. Rawat said the people he was supposed to follow, in an apparent reference to the Congress leadership, were tying his hands and feet. He said he was in a state of dilemma and hoped the new year would show him the way, asking for the guidance of God.
Mr. Rawat’s tweets came a day after the Congress’ screening committee concluded its five-day visit to Uttarakhand to select candidates for the upcoming polls.
News agency ANI quoted an adviser to Mr. Rawat, Surinder Aggarwal, as saying that posters of the former Chief Minister were removed from a rally addressed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh took a dig at Mr. Rawat, responding to his tweets with: "You reap what you sow! All the best for your future endeavours (if there are any) @harishrawatcmuk ji."
Mr. Rawat was the All-India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Punjab and was instrumental in Capt. Singh being dropped from the post in November.
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