Raj Babbar being given the Rajya Sabha nomination may be construed as a strategic win for the long-grumbling former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. The actor is known for his proximity to Bahuguna. The high command having zeroed in on him, ignoring other aspirants, amounts to a drubbing for the incumbent CM Harish Rawat. “The high command has enabled Bahuguna to take sweet revenge against his principal adversary in the State’s politics by foisting the actor. Crafty Rawat had turned the table on Bahuguna with the party’s top brass bestowing favour on Manorama Dobriyal Sharma last time.
“Now, it is the turn for Rawat to nurse wounds,” said an observer that the high command was set to foist an outsider was clear from what state Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh had said. It was inevitable, given the fact that the state leaders were unable to evolve consensus on the candidate, she had said. Sources said that Raj Babbar’s equations with Bahuguna have always been splendid. He had even canvassed for Bahuguna’s son Saket when the latter contested Tehri lok Sabha by-poll in 2012.
Realising that the high command was most unlikely to favour him, given the fragile intra-party equations, Bahuguna pitched for the actor to spite CM Rawat who was also engaged in canvassing for one from his camp. Things clicked for Bahuguna with the actor enjoying perfect confidence of Rahul Gandhi. The actor had switched to Congress at Gandhi’s bidding, sources said.
Sources further said CM Rawat had strongly pitched for a woman being favoured with the nomination, citing the seat having fallen vacant because of the death of Manorma Dobriyal Sharma. Tongues wagged over the CM canvassing for his wife Renuka Rawat. With things not cutting ice, he finally set his eyes on the Uttarakhand PCC president Kishore Upadhyaya. There were reasons too. Upadhyaya has been on a sulk mode since Independent MlA Dinesh Dhanai was inducted in the Cabinet.
With the high command having again para- dropped candidate for RS seat here, the culture of foisting outsiders has been revived. The list of such persons being foisted on the state is long- Sushma Swaraj, Capt Satish Sharma, Satyavrat Chaturvedi and Sangh Priya Gautam. However, since 2008, the trend reversed as local leaders like Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Tarun Vijay and Manorma Dobriyal Sharma were elected. Raj Babbar’s nomination would again revive the past trend of preferring outsiders to the locals.
“In case the State party leaders and rank and file take things lying down it would embolden the high command to repeat such things in future. Given the trend of leaders supinely acquiescing of whatever the high command decides, the trend is unlikely to change. However, it augurs ill for the interests of the party as the high command’s whims would gain precedence over the state’s dignity,” said an observer.