BJP stalwart and former MP from Garhwal Satpal Maharaj having asked three Congress MlAs from Chamoli district ‘Guru Dakhsina’ seems to have landed the already embattled Congress in a grim crisis. This is at a time when the floor test seems imminent, awaiting clearance from the Supreme Court.
Sensing the trouble brewing in the State Congress in hilly Chamoli, the former CM Harish Rawat rushed there on Sunday to keep his flock of MlAs safe from the determined BJP’s poaching bid. Things are serious as the trio is considered to be loyal to Maharaj whom they adore as their mentor. Notably, Maharaj left Congress and joined BJP when the country was in the thick of electioneering in 2014.
Keeping the Congress brass on tenterhooks, they said it was difficult for them to deny what their mentor had asked them for. “We are in a terrible dilemma. We can neither turn down what Satpal Maharaj has asked for nor can we comply with it without hurting the party we belong to when it has been trying hard to wriggle out of the grimmest crisis it has faced since the State came up in 2000 ,” said one of the three MlAs, now under BJP’s lens to further wreck Harish Rawat from within.
Political analysts say that by sounding ambivalent, the three MlAs have put tremendous pressure on the beleaguered Rawat. They say that the MlAs might use the situation as a lever to garner Cabinet berths in case the Rawat ministry manages to survive the floor test. “Rawat rushed to Chamoli to douse the smouldering fire. But there is no indication that things settled in his favour. On the contrary, it seems he has returned to Dehradun more worried and haggard,” said one of the State watchers.
Talking to The Pioneer, Badrinath MlA Rajendra Singh Bhandari, who had won the Assembly election-2007 as an independent and had served the State as Cabinet Minister between 2007-2012, said Maharaj asking for the ‘Guru Dakhsina’ had landed him in a soup. Notably, he was brought into the Congress by Satpal Maharaj. He has been running in a sulk mode because of his being denied a cabinet berth after 2012 Assembly election. He had lost his chance to get into the cabinet as Congress roped in Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), comprising four MlAs, to garner majority to form the government following the fractured mandate of 2012 Assembly election. The observers say that his grudge is justified in view of the fact that he had been included in the cabinet when he was elected as an independent.
Karnprayag MlA and Deputy Speaker Dr Anusuya Prasad Maikhuri is another of the trio whose loyalty to the crisis-ridden Congress is under cloud because of his loyalty to Satpal Maharaj, his true mentor.
Another is Prof Jeet Ram whose loyalty to Harish Rawat seems to be floundering after Satpal Maharaj asked his ‘Guru Dakhina’. His loyalty to Maharaj is known to all who are well-versed with the twists and turns of the State’s political trajectory.
It was expected in the aftermath of Maharaj’s switch to BJP that his die-hard followers would follow suit. But nothing of that kind happened then to the relief of Harish Rawat. But now, when things look grim for him with BJP putting out all stops to depose him even by engineering defection, the possibility of the trio to jump the ship can hardly be ruled out.