To give final touches to the strategy ahead of the Budget session of the Assembly, set to begin on June 8, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat along with State BJP president Ajay Bhatt convened BJP legislature party meeting in Dehradun on Tuesday evening. During the meeting, the MlAs were briefed about the NH-74 scam which has already snowballed into a major issue with the Opposition all set to create ruckus during the session while referring to the Centre allegedly scuttling the CBI probe into it.
The leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh has made it clear while addressing media in Dehradun on Tuesday that she would go the whole hog to corner the state government that is vowing a zero tolerance policy against corruption. She also warned that her party would take the issue to the people of the state to expose the hiatus existing between what the government vows and what it does on the ground.
Alive to the gravity of the issue –corruption was the main plank the BJP campaigning was focused on against the erstwhile Harish Rawat Government during the high-voltage electioneering-the state BJP top brass decided to brief the party MlAs about how to take on the Opposition fire. The senior leaders asked the MlAs to take the sting out of the Opposition attack by affirming that the BJP-helmed government had lodged FIR and suspended officials allegedly embroiled in it aside from recommending a CBI probe a few days after assuming the reins of the State.
Political analysts, opine that the CM is under stress with the Centre stonewalling his CBI probe recommendation into what is billed as ‘super scam’ of the state that has landed the state government in the dock. “Given the situation, it is important for him that the party MlAs stand rock-like behind him during the upcoming session with the Opposition strengthening its armoury to tear into his government on the sensitive land scam issue,” says a BJP watcher.