Dissident Congress leaders who switched to Bharatiya Janata Party are now under stress as it is learnt from BJP insiders that the party’s top brass has decided against providing all of them with tickets for the February 15 election.
Sources say that the saffron party’s high command in course of the crucial election committee meeting held in Delhi has made it amply clear that they would deny tickets to a few of them to pre-empt the group from emerging as a pressure group within the state BJP in future. Notably, nine turncoat Congress MlAs- Vijay Bahuguna, Harak Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Pranav Singh 'Champion', Shailendra Mohan Singhal, Amrita Rawat, Pradeep Batra, Umesh Sharma Kau and Shaila Rani Rawat turned rebels against the chief minister Harish Rawat just before the crucial debate and a possible voting on the appropriation bill on March 18, 2016.
later, they en masse joined BJP with litigation continuing in the apex court over their disqualification from the Assembly by the Speaker.
“There is little doubt that they bargained hard for tickets with the party’s national leadership before their switch to the BJP camp. However, things on the ground are difficult now with the old horses of BJP remaining strongly disinclined to yield the seats the dissidents-turned BJP leaders have their eyes on. They are leaving no stone unturned to keep them at bay from the electoral contest as they are sure that those who contested against the dissidents and were defeated stand a fair chance of winning the seats on their own, given the wave supposedly blowing for the Opposition party,” said an observer.
A BJP insider says that the party top brass has logic in defence of its decision to keep a few of the dissidents away from the electoral contest. “They have reasons of be wary of the group comprising the new entrants, given the fact that they are yet to merge psychologically in the BJP camp, choosing to retain its separate identity. In case all the nine win elections and BJP is in a position to form the next government, post election, they would call the shots over the formation of the government. And it would be difficult for the high command to brush them over, given their numerical clout in the House, post election. This would be an unpalatable scenario for the party’s top leadership,” the insider said.
Things were clear from the way the state election committee was constituted. Two of the nine leaders-former CM Vijay Bahuguna and former cabinet ministers Harak Singh Rawat -were inducted in it. Both played their bit in helping the party reach out to the electorate during the month- long Parivartan Yatra. “Particularly, Harak Singh Rawat was unleashed on the CM Harish Rawat, his sworn enemy. But the party high command is resolved to keep them under leash lest they make bold to exercise veto power to challenge the high command in the coming days,” said the BJP insider.