With supporters of many ticket hopefuls in the Congress turning violent at the Congress Bhawan in Dehradun and resorting to other forms of protest elsewhere in the State against being left out of the candidates list, Chief Minister Harish Rawat communicated to all party office-bearers from the Pradesh Congress Committee level down to the party workers at the booth level, apologising to them and appealing to them to stand united with the party which would surely find opportunities to utilise the skills of the disappointed leaders.
Trying to placate the disappointed and exhort party workers to work towards ensuring re-election, the chief minister Harish Rawat reached out to party workers and leaders throughIJ interactive voice response system (IVRS) with individual calls being sent to all, appealing them to stand united for the Vidhan Sabha 2017 election. In the voice message about two and a half minutes in length, Rawat begins by stating he wants to communicate his “Dil ki baat” to the party workers. He goes on to say that some of them must be jubiliant and some others must be disappointed, taking the responsibility upon himself for their hurt. He goes on to acknowledge that there are many of those party members who had supported him in “painful times” and stood and worked along with him in troubled phases in 2000 to hold the Congress party strong in Uttarakhand, despite having electorally strong facets, could not be fielded by the party since then in any of the polls so far. He states that the present times are of much bigger import, terming the assembly election to be a big fight against those “communal forces” trying to destroy the Congress, a fight for the aspirations of the people of Uttarakhand and its development. He says more than once that he had made mistakes while also referring to the various factors which have to be taken into consideration during the time of selection of candidates to contest the polls. He addresses the disappointed ticket hopefuls stating that if elected to govern the state in the 2017 Vidhan Sabha election, the Congress government will look for opportunities both in the organisation and in the government for such leaders who could not be fielded in the election. He goes on to appeal the party leaders and workers to remain united instead of getting scattered. The party members should leave aside their disappointments and work unitedly in support of the candidates fielded by the party. The chief minister appealed all party members to hold the party flag and stand with the party candidates.
Observers state that retaining a cool tone of voice while also attempting to sound sincere by profusely apologising and acknowledging what should have been but could not be done for some reasons, Rawat has for the first time made such acknowledgements explicitly. The point about eligible leaders working hard since the year 2000 not getting a chance to contest any election since then till the present and the assurance to look for opportunities to “use their capabilities” proactively if the Congress is elected to form the government may exert an impact on many party members. But the coming days will reveal whether the CM’s IVRS message was successful in claiming down the disappointed ticket hopefuls and retain their loyalty to the Congress.