Resembling early 2012 after the State Assembly polls, this time too the State Finance Minister and MlA from Haldwani Assembly constituency, Indira Hridayesh’s month-long camping in the corridors of power between New Delhi and Dehradun to garner support in her favour for Uttarakhand Chief Minister’s chair, could not secure her elevation or for that matter some other Chief Minister hopefuls’ wishes before the Congress party high command’s will.
With that it has been proven once again within the Congress that it is not a majoritarian view but the will of the party high command that prevails. Had that not been true, present incumbent Harish Rawat would not have to wait for over two years to take over the Government of Uttarakhand. That time too when the State Congress was running short of majority to form its Government, Rawat was claiming to have support of maximum number of newly elected MlAs. But the party’s central leadership ignored his wishes or that of his supporters and handed over the reins of Uttarakhand which was still fighting its battle on many fronts, to Vijay Bahuguna.
It is worth mentioning here that many senior Congress leaders here, on the condition of anonymity said that since Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s special emphasis is now on giving due representation to youths in the party organisations as well as party led Government in States, it is high time for the senior party functionaries to see whether it is appropriate for them to pursue before the party high command for the high positions within the establishments and party organisational level.
Thus party’s formula to give maximum representation to youths in organisational and Government levels has also come as a major setback to the political ambitions of many veteran Congressmen. The Congress had already experimented with its youth representation formula by giving tickets to youths in the last State Assembly polls in 2012, though results of these experiments were not very impressive. For example, the party lost all the three Assembly seats including Kaladhungi, Bhimtal and lalkuaon in Nainital district in 2012 Assembly polls where it fielded Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s handpicked youth candidates.
Therefore, interestingly, it seems among the other reasons, recent remarks of Rahul Gandhi in regard to giving due representation to women also in policy making and in governance, probably made Hridayesh try her luck again to become the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. As her close aides informed, she had been camping in State and national capitals since the beginning of the year when the talks of change of guard in Uttarakhand started surfacing.
However, Hridayesh and other Ministers who have now lost their battle for State’s chief ministerial post to Rawat, would definitely be eying for some important portfolios in the new State Government too. But it is to be seen how does the Chief Minister allocates portfolios among his Ministers who have been repeated from the previous Vijay Bahuguna Cabinet. Though now all the chief ministerial aspirants within the State Congress are now claiming that they are with the high command’s decision, it is to be seen to what extent they cooperate with Rawat ahead.