In a bid to bridge the yawning chasm existing between the present and former Chief Ministers—Harish Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna—the two leaders met here in Dehradun on Friday. The two leaders discussed the State scenario with particular focus on the raging swine flu menace on the official side of the dialogue.
Unofficially, however, the dialogue was focused on the unfolding political scenario in the aftermath of the demises of the Cabinet Minister Surendra Rakesh, the BSP MlA, and Rajya Sabha MP Manorma Dobriyal Sharma. Sources said that both the leaders have agreed to leave space for each other if they bring down respective stakes a bit.
Things have turned interesting against the backdrop of ex CM Bahuguna having asked the party high command to prod CM Rawat to induct the MlAs close to him in the Cabinet and Rawat on his turn apprising the top brass of his standpoint of the matter. AICC president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have instructed the Rawat to mellow stridency and accede to his rival’s demand to iron out differences between the two camps.
According to sources privy to the CM’s coterie, Rawat may play the Muslim card to offset his rival’s stratagem. Notably, in Uttarakhand, Muslim accounts for around 18% of the electorate. However, there are only two MlAs-one from Congress and the other from BSP-to represent the community in the Assembly. With Bhagwanpur Assembly by-poll, vacated by the death of Surendra Rakesh, being on the cards, wily Rawat might give ticket to a Muslim to stop Bahuguna from foisting his own man on the party. In case, Rawat goes for that, it would be difficult for both the party high command and Bahuguna to oppose things, given the numerical strength of the minority community in terms of the electoral arithmetic.
Sources further said that things might thaw by Bahuguna faction being given the Rajya Sabha ticket by way of the bargain to have a Muslim being given ticket for the Assembly by-election. Replying to a question from the media, Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat said that Congress MlA Subodh Uniyal who is a die-hard Bahuguna camp follower, should be inducted. CM Rawat said not much should be read.