After meeting former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat said he would lead the party in the coming State Assembly elections as head of the party’s campaign committee.
His remarks come just days after his outburst on Twitter, where he claimed that his own party had turned its back on him and “tied up his feet and hands at a time when I have to swim in the sea of elections where the governing forces have let loose crocodiles”.
Party organisation turned its back on me, says Rawat
Mr. Rawat’s public comments were being interpreted as a sign of his unhappiness at not being named as the party’s chief ministerial face in the polls.
The Hindu reported on Thursday that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had spoken to him to resolve his grievances soon after he went public with them.
“Kadam, kadam badhaye ja, Congress ke geet gaye ja. [Keep on marching forward, sing praises of the Congress]. I will be the face of the election campaign in Uttarakhand. I will lead as chairman of the campaign panel and everyone will support me in fulfilling that responsibility,” Mr. Rawat told reporters after emerging from the meeting with Mr. Gandhi.
Chief Ministerial face
He, however, evaded a direct question on being declared as the party’s Chief Ministerial face.
“In Congress, after the election is completed, legislature party meets to decide their leader. They send their recommendation to the Congress president and then the president decides who will lead the legislature party. We will follow the same procedure on Uttarakhand too,” he stated.
Congress Legislature Party leader Pritam Singh and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ganesh Godiyal were also part of the meeting with Mr. Gandhi that reviewed the party’s poll preparations in the State.
“We will fight this election under the leadership of Harish Rawat, who is the chairman of the campaign committee,” Mr. Godiyal observed.
So far, the Congress has not announced a chief ministerial candidate. It has talked about going into the elections under a collective leadership.
