With the State Congress veterans shying away from the campaign trail of the urban local body (ULB) election, the State Congress president Pritam Singh has plunged headlong into the heat and dust of the electoral battle, fighting nearly a solitary battle to keep the flag of the grand old party fly high.
Observers say that the conspicuous absence of the veterans yet from the campaign train of the ULB poll can be ascribed to the State unit being ridden with factional schism. “Keeping its eyes on the high- stake 2019 general election, the Congress high command has tried to bring about a semblance of unity in the State unit. But it is not discernible on the ground in the run-up to the ULB poll,” the observer says.
It is clear that the State party stalwart and the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and those loyal to him are yet to show up much during the campaign. “They are keeping a low profile for reasons well known.
More surprising is the same indifference being shown by the former State party chief Kishore Upadhyaya.
Earlier, his younger brother Sachin Upadhyaya having filed his nomination as an independent candidate for the mayoral election created flutter in the State party circles.
Later, he was mollified into withdrawing from the contest. But Upadhyaya-away from the poll campaign-seems to be still sulking,” says another political commentator.
However, what is more disconcerting for the Pritam Singh faction is the absence of the redoubtable Indira Hridayesh from Dehradun and other towns where the polls are due. “She is choosing to remain ensconced in Haldwani in Kumaon where her son Sumit Hridayesh is in the mayoral fray.
She is busy to have her son elected from her home turf. The contest there is tough with BJP’s Jogendra Rautela going out the whole hog to let the post get into the saffron kitty. Given the toughness of the contest, it would be difficult for Hridayesh to step out of the confines of Haldwani as a debacle would mean a severe setback to her plan to promote her son as her political heir,” said a Congress insider.
In a nearly same case, another senior State Congress leader and former Minister Surendra Singh Negi is finding it difficult to move out of Kotdwar where his wife Hemlata Negi is locked in the mayoral contest against Neetu Rawat, wife of Lansdowne MLA Dilip Rawat.
Those close to Pritam Singh say that the State party chief is quite capable of leading the campaign alone. “However the veterans would hit the campaign trail soon after the Diwali,” one of them said.
The State party vice-president Surya Kant Dhasmana said that all is well in the Congress here. “We are fighting the ULB polls unitedly and the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and others would campaign for the party candidates after Diwali is over,” he said.