The Congress legislature Party (ClP) meeting, which was called to have a discussion on State lokayukta Bill, which was passed by the Vidhan Sabha on November 2011 and got president's approval by September 2013, could not reach conclusive end; so Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has called next ClP and alliance parties' meeting on December 15.
Replying to the media query, Bahuguna had said that the State wants to implement the Act, but the amended version. Sources said that majority of the present MlAs were against the implementation of lokayukta Act, but PDF members were adamant to implement the Act in actual form and later the Government can make amendments.
The Pioneer had already anticipated on November 17 that legislatures are divided into two factions. Officially, only 25 out of 41 MlAs, including Congress and alliance parties MlAs, were present in the ClP. With this meeting faction, who was looming large in the air covertly, become open because 20, including a chief minister out of 34 Congress MlAs, including a nominated were present in the meeting.
If we scrutinise the absent MlAs' profile, then excluding Subodh Uniyal, all MlAs belong to Union Minister for Water Resource Harish Rawat faction because these MlAs had taken oath of MlA very late after Assembly election-2012. Earlier, the ClP meeting was supposed to take place on November 7, but could not be convened because the Congress leaders were divided on the issue. On November 17, the Congress legislature could not attend the meeting.
Although officially it was said that the meeting was finalised in a short notice, so MlAs prefer to attend their prior schedule programme, so the Government has decided to convene ClP meeting on December 15. Sources said that the Government may face similar situation in upcoming ClP because of deep rooted factionalism within Congress, In which five out of 11 Cabinet ministers, including two Congress minister, including Amrita Rawat and Surendra Singh Negi, three PDF ministers including Mantri Prasad Naithani, Surendra Rakesh and Pritam Singh Panwar were absent from the meeting.
The Congress-led State Government is having support of seven MlAs of Progressive democratic Front (PDF), in which four MlAs, including a Cabinet Minister Harish Chandra Durgapal, two BSP MlAs Sarbat Karim Ansari and Haridass and one independent MlA Dinesh Dhanai were present there. In Bahuguna Cabinet, Congress has seven ministerial berths in which two ministers were missing including SS Negi and Amrita Rawat.As per the report, five Congress ministers, including Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh, Revenue Minister Yashpal Arya, Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat, Sports Minister Dinesh Aggrawal and Panchayat Minister Preetam Singh were present. Other congress Deputy speaker Dr Anusuya Prasad Maikhuri (Karnprayag) MlAs Vikram Singh Negi (Pratapnagar), Rajendra Bhandari (Badrinath), Ganesh Godiyal (Srinagar), Sunder lal Manderwal (Pauri), Pradeep Batra (Roorkee), Furkan Ahmed (piran Kaliyar), Shaila Rani Rawat (Kedarnath), Sarita Arya (Nainital), RV Gardener (nominated MlA), Vijaypal Sajwan (Gangotri), Madan Singh Bisht (Dwarhaat), Rajkumar (Rajpur road) and Umesh Sharma Kau (Raipur), were present.
Eleven Congress MlAs, including Hemesh Kharkwal (Champawat), Mayukh Mahar (Pithoragarh), Narayan Ram Arya (Gangolihaat), Harish Dhami (Dharchula), lalit Farswan (Kapkot), Manoj Tiwari (Almora), Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion (Khanpur), Subodh Uniyal (Narendra Nagar), Navprabhat (Vikasnagar), Prof Jeet Ram (Tharali) and Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal (Jaspur). Being a Speaker of Vidhan Sabha, Jageshwar MlA Govind Singh Kunjwal could not attend the meeting. Kunjwal has already said that the State Government should implement the State lokayukta Act, which was approved by the President of India.