Rebel Congress MlA from Raipur, Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’ alleged that former Chief Minister Harish Rawat had been heading the State Government like a one-man show. The MlA also averred that he was being pressurised for about one year now to shift from his assembly constituency and to contest from another constituency.
Accusing the former Chief Minister of bringing down the Congress-led State Government, the MlA said that the present situation could have been prevented if Rawat had headed the government in coordination with the ministers and party MlAs.
Addressing the media at his residence in the presence of his supporters here on Thursday, the Raipur MlA complained that in the Congress-led State Government headed by Harish Rawat, the party’s own MlAs were being neglected and works in their Vidhan Sabha constituencies were not being executed as required.
He said, “Former CM is himself responsible for bringing the State Government down. Despite repeated attempts to raise various problems and issues in my constituency, the CM’s office remained apathetic. Rawat was running a one-man show, taking actions on his own without consulting his cabinet colleagues and MlAs. He also appeared to be least concerned about the position of the party MlAs,” alleged Kau.
Claiming that he was still a Congress “soldier”, the MlA said that he had to take the hard step of renegading because he was feeling stifled and worried due to the work style of the former CM.
He said, “For about a year now, the former CM had been pressurising me to change my constituency and contest from Dehradun Cantt constituency in the assembly elections. Considering these factors, I deliberated with my supporters before taking the step of going against our Government.”
The MlA further claimed that since his election in 2012, he had brought about victory of party candidates for posts including six municipal councilors, 24 Gram Pradhan and 22 block Panchayat seats from his assembly constituency.
“For about a year now, I had been complaining and expressing dissatisfaction to the party high command regarding Harish Rawat’s style of functioning. I had also raised this issue with the Congress Uttarakhand in charge Ambika Soni all in vain as no action was taken. Development works in my constituency were undertaken during the chief ministership of Vijay Bahuguna,” he added.
To decide his future course of action, the MlA said that he would deliberate with the other rebel MlAs and discuss the issue with his supporters before reaching a decision. When asked whether he would contest the assembly polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket, Kau said that time will tell which political choice he makes.
Irrespective of this, he claimed confidently that with the full backing of his constituency voters he will be elected again from the Raipur constituency.