The violent altercation between rival factions of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal on Thursday has further damaged the standing of the party in public perception.
The party chief Kashi Singh Airy and re-elected chief (of the rival faction) Trivendra Singh Panwar both accuse each other of being unconstitutionally occupying the post of the party chief.
While Panwar accuses Airy of acting on the directions of the Congress party as part of a conspiracy, Airy states that the "autocratic and unconstitutional" actions of Panwar had caused considerable damage to the party.
While Airy was elected UKD chief by his supporters after being expelled from the party by Panwar, Panwar himself was re-elected to the post by his supporters on Thursday. The arrival of Panwar and his supporters in the UKD office resulted in an altercation between rival factions after which the police resorted to lathi charge and took Airy and Panwar into custody along with 62 of their supporters.
On Friday, Panwar and his supporters met the Dehradun district magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram and complained about the police action. According to the UKD (Panwar faction) general secretary Manmohan lakhera, following their demand for unbiased treatment to both the factions, the DM ordered the police to evict members of the Airy faction from the office.
lakhera alleged that Airy and his faction were working on the directions of the Congress party, while adding that the Panwar faction had a letter from the Election Commission of India stating that the faction headed by Panwar was the real UKD.
On the other hand, Airy said that they had already sent the conclusions and list of executive committee members of the ECI and were awaiting its reply.
He said that though the public had hoped that factions of the party would unite, the recent incident has dented the image of the party.
Party leaders will interact with the public to clear the picture, he said.
On the other hand, the Panwar faction, too, plans to raise the issue in the public. With no end in sight to the infighting, the once respected regional party now appears to be struggling to survive, say observers.