Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat just may lose his Vidhan Sabha membership because he occupies the post of chairman of Uttarakhand Seeds & Terai Development Corporation (USTDC), categorised as an office of profit.
The State BJP is consistently raking up this issue and has lodged a complaint with Governor Aziz Qureshi and the Election Commission. The party is now planning to approach high court.
Once the Bhati Commission report observed that Hemant Dwivedi’s appointment as USTDC chairman was illegal, the BJP feels appointment of Rawat to the same post is similarly illegal.
Uttarakhand had already removed 57 posts — 26 in 2006, 28 in 2008 and three in 2010 — from the office of profit category, to avoid difficult situations. A copy of the list of posts which can’t be criteria for disqualification of membership is with The Pioneer.