Seemingly perturbed over the Congress High Command not lending credence to the voice of dissidence and, instead, pampering his bête noire, Chief Minister Harish Rawat, ignoring the fast changing equations of the State party trajectory, the former Chief Minister, Vijay Bahuguna, has dropped broad hints that he would be forced to quit the party if the party top brass fails to mend ways.
Bahuguna met the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, on Monday evening in Delhi and apprised her of the simmering dissidence now picking momentum. To buttress his point that Rawat is fast losing ground, he submitted a bunch of local newspapers to the party president to support his position. He stressed that things within the party are assuming volcanic proportions with most of the MlAs getting disgruntled with the Chief Minister's style of functioning.
A political analyst said that the former Chief Minister is about to jump the ship as he sees it is sinking. "He believes Harish Rawat sticking to his guns to keep the alliance with PDF unscathed even at the expense of his party colleagues who want him to rid the Government of them, would drive the disgruntled to desperation. He is perhaps waiting for the developing situation to reach that critical point. Besides, he knows that Rawat is using PDF as a bulwark to keep Bahuguna and those loyal to him at bay," said an observer.
He further said the exit of the party stalwart Jayanti Natarajan has left the Congress High Command on edge. "Perhaps, they would not risk a State party stalwart of the stature of Bahuguna deserting them when the party seems to be embroiled in its existential crisis," the observer added. Party insiders said that Bahuguna has been sulking since the day Rawat was saddled, elbowing him out. His sulk turned into wrath when Rawat had used his former crony Kiran Mandal, an MlA, as a decoy to spite him.
Notably, Bahuguna prodded Mandal, a BJP MlA, to switch from the saffron party to the Congress to beat the former in the number game with the figure sitting tight on the ruling party. Mandal had relinquished his seat to ensure Bahuguna's entry into the Assembly through a by-election in 2012. What happened later was enough to send Bahuguna in a rage. Doing the volte face, Mandal alleged that Bahuguna had failed him in terms of the promise to rehabilitate the Bengali community, settled there since the time of independence, by giving them pattas of the lands they have been occupying. Viewing things going irreversibly against him, Bahuguna threatened to launch a Jan-Aakrosh rally in case things involving the Bengali refugee settlers were not settled once and for all.
Sources said that a crafty politician Rawat had manoeuvred things from behind the screen to make the Congress MP Satpal Maharaj to leave the party. Now he is playing the same intrigues to prod Bahuguna to leave. "This is quite in tune with the developing drift in the State Congress's politics. Bahuguna tried his best to bring his arch-rival down to his knees, albeit unsuccessfully," sources said. Bahuguna secured Tehri lok Sabha ticket for his son Saket Bahuguna during the general election. However, he lost. But things were balanced as CM Rawat also tasted humiliation as his wife who contested from Haridwar lok Sabha seat also lost.
later, Bahuguna demanded Rajya Sabha seat for himself, which was vacated by BJP MP and former CM Bhagat Singh Koshyari. But the party High Command zeroed in on ex-Mayor Manorma Dobriyal Sharma with Rawat pitching for her. later, a beleaguered Bahuguna took up the cause of the party severing ties with PDF to accommodate the party leaders who have been kept out of the ministerial reckoning. The recently held churning session of the party bore witness to the party horizontally divided between two factions pulling things in opposite direction on the emotive PDF issue. However, Rawat held his ground, adroitly steering clear of the contentious issue, thus driving Bahuguna into the point of desperation.