Congress stressing on the top leaders opening direct interaction with the booth level workers to adequately combat the cadre-based Bharatiya Janata Party, All India Congress Committee vice- president Rahul Gandhi is coming to Rishikesh on Sunday to have direct interaction with the party’s rank and file at the grassroots. Observers say that the high- profile visit to the holy city indicates another thing that the Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay is most likely to foray into the electoral contest from Rishikesh this time round after his aborted attempt to get into the Assembly from Tehri constituency in the previous election.
He was humbled by Dinesh Dhanai who contested as an independent candidate during the 2012 election. later, Dhanai also entered the cabinet at the behest of the Chief Minister Harish Rawat. At the same time, it is likely that Dhanai would contest from Tehri seat whence he won the last election, albeit on a Congress ticket this time.
The followers of Upadhyay are elated with the situation unfolding the way their leader wanted. “Amidst the buzz of the state party chief trying his electoral luck from Rishikesh, the upcoming visit of the national vice-president of the party is immensely significant. It proves the proximity our leader enjoys with the first family of the party,” said a staunch follower of Upadhyay.
However, it is yet to be seen whether the party high command would throw weight behind the CM Harish Rawat regarding the latter’s view that the PDF MlAs should be given freedom to choose one of the two options-fighting the election on Congress tickets or as independents with Congress fielding no candidate against them. Observers say that the view of the state party president to field party candidates for all the 70 seats is likely to prevail finally, given the way things are moving.
Upadhyay who was elected from Tehri constituency during 2002 election was inducted in the state cabinet when ND Tiwari helmed the Congress government. He was re-elected from the seat during the assembly election-2007. However, he earned sort of notoriety then as he developed a habit of staging sit-ins at the entrance of the Vidhan Sabha at the drop of his hat, something that prompted then Speaker Harbans Kapur to mock at his ‘infantile’ obsession with sit-ins, saying that true to his name, Kishore was yet to grow into full maturity.