Stunned by the daggers out in the Congress camp, culminating in the inglorious exit of the seemingly rock-solid Harish Rawat Government, the discerning party insiders say that the High Command’s share of the blame of the sordid episode can hardly be wished away.
“The national top brass of the party were under the illusion that Rawat was invincible. A day before State Congress incharge Ambika Soni came to media to rescue Harish Rawat. They were perhaps influenced by the bravado the ex-CM was indulging in for some time, stressing that his redoubt could hardly be touched, let alone toppled. One can hardly forget what the former CM rather infamously boasted: “Na Khata Na Bahi Jo Harish Rawat bole wahi sahi.” As is its wont, the high command was complacent, thinking that Rawat’s one-man show would help the party sail through the upcoming hustings, glitch free. Had they been a bit wary of the inflated ego of the leader seeing mirage where there were quick sands things might have been avoided,” one of the party insiders said.
However, there is another opinion. It says that the high command had let things happen, knowing full well that embers of dissent were taking forms of conflagration. “It is unknown why it was so. Perhaps the larger than life image Rawat was projecting for himself annoyed them. However, the role of octogenarian ND Tiwari is murky too. Maybe, he had a role in what befell Rawat, for he hardly forgets and forgives. Rawat troubled him a lot and maybe, he played a role away from the public glare to pay him back in the same coin,” said another Congressman who had seen a lot of the quirky twists of the State’s politics.
It is a fact that Rawat despite being a shrewd reader of human nature failed to gauge the mood of the MlAs readying to throw the gauntlet.
Vijay Bahuguna who led the revolt proved a master strategist, plotting things with meticulous care and keeping things under a veil of secrecy. He kept Rawat in bogs of self-complacency, waiting for the opportune time to spring with the strength of a lion and fraud of a fox a la Machiavellian Prince. He did his homework before he ventured to storm the Rawat redoubt with such a might and main that left his arch rival biting the dust. It was revenge against what was meted out to him, a raw deal, according to his followers.
The churning of the developments leading to the nine MlAs breaking ranks with the Congress revealed that things started with five of them- Vijay Bahuguna, Harak Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal and Amrita Rawat. later, three more were roped in.
Six out of nine rebels- Vijay Bahuguna, Harak Singh Rawat, Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal, Amrita Rawat, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion and Subodh Uniyal- are battle-hardened seasoned politicians. They enjoy a certain measure of following in the form of committed vote banks. The rest three- MlAs Umesh Sharma Kau, Dr Shaila Rani Rawat, and Pradeep Batra- are relatively green horns.
Harak Singh Rawat, who was in charge of Medical Education and Sainik Kalyan was reportedly irked due to his orders not being followed in these two departments. He was being cornered in Rudraprayag constituency where one of his staunch opponents Pradeep Thapliyal was made Rudraprayag district president. Feeling humiliated, he lost all his options other than deserting Congress and opening a front against Harish Rawat.
Previously engaged in municipal politics, Kau emerged a giant killer during the 2012 Assembly election as he trounced the former cabinet minister from BJP redoubtable Trivendra Singh Rawat from Raipur Assembly constituency. It is learnt that Harish Rawat had asked him to shift to another constituency, but he chose to cling to Raipur which he had been grooming with care. Subsequently, he jumped into the rebel bandwagon to pull things down for Rawat.
Dr Shaila Rani Rawat’s is an interesting case too. She turned hostile to then CM Vijay Bahuguna in the aftermath of Kedarnath, disaster 2013. However, for some time, she had been feeling slighted for being kept at bay as far as the grandiose plans Rawat was rolling out to restructure the damaged shrine and its surrounding areas were concerned.
Pradeep Batra’s revolt epitomized the quirky nature of political loyalty. He had refrained from taking oath as an MlA after Assembly election-2012 to mark his protest against Bahuguna being anointed with the coveted post of the chief minister, ignoring his mentor Harish Rawat who was then a Union cabinet minister. There were reasons behind his switching sides. It is learnt that Rawat was in no mood to give him re-nomination from the prestigious Roorkee seat for which he was grooming Roorkee Municipal Corporation mayor. Rawat started suspecting his loyalty towards him. The mayor’s unflinching loyalty seemed to be weighing with Rawat rather than the pains the incumbent MlA was taking to manage another win for the party.
Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal, another rebel, was by profession a doctor. He had won three consecutive elections. Though with the Congress, many of his family members are inclined to BJP. He was one of those MlAs for whose entry in the Harish Rawat cabinet Bahuguna had taken great pains.
Another MlA to induct whom in the cabinet Bahuguna tried a lot is Subodh Uniyal. He is a die –hard follower of Vijay Bahuguna. Rawat refused to take him in, citing the fact that his brother UK Uniyal was already enjoying cabinet status being the advocate general of the State. Things were bound to rupture, as Rawat was busy grooming several local leaders for the Narendranagar Assembly constituency from which he was elected. Rawat’s ploy was clear- to spite the prospects of the hardcore Bahuguna loyalist by prodding the locals to contest as independents.
Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, who is enamoured of firearms and dancing extravaganzas, loves to remain in the limelight mostly for wrong reasons. He for some reasons incurred Rawat’s wrath during the Panchayat election. His followers say that his soaring popularity, manifest from his three consecutive Assembly election victories, spawned insecurity in Rawat. He knew that his claim into the cabinet if he would win for the fourth term and if Congress would return to power for the second term would be hard to resist.
“Rawat brought down his own doom, taking things for granted. He failed to understand that his nemesis was proving the inescapable agent of his eclipse,” said an observer.