Gairsain, the would-be capital of the State, given the present trend of things, has traversed a long way since its foundation was laid when Vijay Bahuguna was the Chief Minister. Things got fillip after a Cabinet meeting was held there in 2012 followed by foundations being laid for the Assembly building and MlA hostels in 2013. later, there-day special session of the Assembly held here in 2014 seemed to have taken things far. Now, the second such session being presently held are taking things near the consummation.
However, the matter making steady headway is in danger of being stuck in the cesspool of political one-upmanship with the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP having reduced it to a point of bickering. Things might intensify further with the time for the next Assembly election approaching nearer. Both would do everything to milk the emotive issue electorally.
The Congress is boasting of its initiatives taken to fulfill the dream of the Statehood activists who had sacrificed a lot for the cause of Statehood. Uttarakhand State Congress president Kishore Upadhyay pledged to make sure that Gairsain is made the permanent capital of Uttarakhand while addressing the party convention in Garisain on November 1.
However, the ruling party stopped short of formally going for the announcement. Conspicuously, none of the Cabinet ministers, including the Chief Minister Harish Rawat, was present at the convention. The observers opine that this reveals the dithering in the party’s top brass.
The BJP seized the opportunity to tear into the ruling party, knowing well that the issue strikes chord in the common people’s collective sentiment, said one of the observers.
BJP claims that they have no ambiguity on the issue. The matter was broached by the party in course of the previous Assembly sessions held in Dehradun. Now, they are demanding the State government at Gairsain to rid itself of the dilemma and go for the announcement immediately. They stalled the Assembly proceedings for two consecutive days while demanding a debate on it under section 310 that involves division.
This stratagem seems to have put the Treasury Bench on the defensive. BJP leadership seems convinced that in case of a division, many of the Congress MlAs would vote in favour of the saffron motion, resulting in a split in the ruling party.