Uttarakhand: Cong Trying to Come Out of Harish Rawat’s Shadow After Quarter Century

Dehradun: In a move aimed at preparations for the 2027 Assembly polls, the Congress party is trying to come out of the shadow of senior party leader and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat after a quarter of a century since the inception of the state in 2000.

The party has appointed a triumvirate, with Ganesh Godiyal, a former Brahmin legislator from Pauri Garhwal as the president of the Uttarakhand unit. He has replaced Karan Mahra, brother-in- law of Rawat, who completed his three-year term in April this year. Interestingly, the other two senior party leaders, namely, Pritam Singh and Harak Singh Rawat were appointed as heads of the party's campaign committee and election management committee, respectively.

Godiyal, considered close to Harish Rawat, of late has distanced himself from him while the comeback of Harak Singh Rawat on an important position is a setback for Harish Rawat, who has not forgiven him for the 2016 mass defection of Congress legislators.

The mercurial Harak Singh Rawat, who returned to Congress before the 2022 Assembly polls, is facing CBI and Enforcement Directorate cases of corruption, but has been most vocal against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. He has been awarded for his aggression despite facing cases, which none of the senior state Congress leaders have done.

Mahra, a former Congress legislator from Ranikhet, had taken over from Godiyal in 2022 after the party’s defeat in the Assembly polls. The appointment of the triumvirate is being seen as a blow to the ambitions of Harish Rawat who is the sole senior-most party leader still eyeing the top post if the party wins the 2027 Assembly polls.

The Congress has tried to balance between Garhwal and Kumaon regions and various castes. While, Yashpal Arya, Leader of Opposition and Deputy leader Bhuvan Kapri are from Kumaon, the outgoing state unit chief, Mahra was also from Kumaon. By appointing the triumvirate from Garhwal region, and also appointing district Congress chiefs from various castes and communities, the party is trying to balance the equation before the Assembly polls that are 13 months away.

The past two Assembly polls of 2017 and 2022 were fought under Harish Rawat’s tutelage which Congress lost badly. Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party has been completely routed by BJP riding on the planks of Hindutva and hyper-nationalism.

The Congress failed to score a single win in the 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Harish Rawat has been a controversial leader who has tried to control the state party unit pressuring the party high command to bow to his wishes from time to time. Interestingly, in his bid to lord over the party, he has never allowed or supported any state leader as Congress party president. He also has the dubious distinction of having feuds with all the state party chiefs, including his own brother-in-law Mahra and his one-time proteges namely Pritam Singh and Kishore Upadhaya. Yashpal Arya, at present LoP, also had bitter relations with Harish Rawat when he headed the state party unit.

Most interestingly, Godiyal was very close to Harish Rawat and was brought in as party chief in 2021 replacing Pritam Singh before the 2022 Assembly polls. It is still commonly believed that Godiyal has been brought back again on the recommendation of Harish Rawat, but the ground reality is that Harish Rawat had changed horses midstream and was rooting for Pritam Singh, whom he himself had opposed during his tenure as state party chief.

After the resounding win of Congress in Dehradun district panchayat elections under the leadership of Pritam Singh this year, Harish Rawat at a public felicitation function had announced that next Assembly polls should be fought under the leadership of Pritam Singh much to the surprise of Godiyal who had since then tried to distance himself from the shadow of Harish Rawat.    

Harish Rawat had a running feud with veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister N.D Tiwari and during the tenure of Tiwari from 2002 till 2007, he acted as the main opposition to him and left no chance to undermine him. He was dead against the group of party leaders owing allegiance to Tiwari and forced most of them to leave the party.

Harish Rawat also led a group of Uttarakhand Congress legislators who opposed the elevation of Vijay Bahuguna as Chief Minister after the 2012 Assembly elections. In the bargain, he got a place in the ministry of Manmohan Singh. Despite being a Union Minister from 2009 till 2014, he continued to snipe at Bahuguna and finally got rid of him following the 2013 natural disaster. He played a crucial role in convincing the party high command that the state government response to the disaster was dismal and there was a need for a change of guard.

Rawat replaced Bahuguna as Chief Minister in February 2014 but was unable to keep his flock together, particularly leaders belonging to the Tiwari faction. Soon, senior party leader Satpal Maharaj left the party. Later, 10 Congress legislators led by Bahuguna left Congress to join the BJP bringing down his government, which was later reinstated on the intervention of the Supreme Court directions. But he lost the 2017 Assembly elections badly. Rawat himself lost from both the Assembly segments of Kiccha and Haridwar (rural) from where he contested the polls. The party was reduced to its worst tally of 11 seats in the house of 70 members.

After the poll debacle, Pritam Singh, a legislator from Chakrata, was made state Congress Chief but Rawat also had problem with him. After the demise of Indira Hridayesh, a senior party leader from Haldwani, who was LoP in the Assembly, Rawat convinced the party high command to remove Pritam Singh and got Ganesh Godiyal as state party president.

Pritam Singh, five-time legislator from Chakrata, who throughout his political career in state politics, was a Rawat loyalist found his own mentor turning against him.

During the 2022 Assembly polls, Rawat also had strained relations with state party general secretary in-charge Devendra Yadav who was trying to take everybody along. Rawat wanted a free hand in the distribution of tickets which he was able to do to some extent.

Earlier, Rawat, who was party general secretary in-charge of Punjab, was blamed for the ruin of the party in the state. Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had accused Rawat of playing dirty and tried to prop up Navjot Singh Sidhu before the 2022 Assembly polls. After the removal of Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister, both the leaders said unpleasant things against each other. Singh also accused Rawat in his resignation letter.  

After Rawat returned to Uttarakhand after the coronation of Charanjit Singh Channi as Punjab Chief Minister, he had a tiff with Devendra Yadav, party general secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand. Amarinder Singh had tweeted “You reap what you sow”.

Interestingly, another former Punjab Congress chief and at present Punjab BJP president, Sunil Jakhar, in an interview with a television channel, had also blamed Rawat for scripting the defeat of the party in Punjab. He said Rawat came with a set agenda to promote Navjot Singh Sidhu, who demanded greater say and played a big role in the replacement of Amarinder Singh with Charanjit Singh Channi.

Jakhar said he suspected he got his agenda implemented at the cost of bickering. On the issue of Congress’s debacle in Uttarakhand and Rawat personally losing elections in 2022, Jakhar said that it was probably “divine justice”.

It would now be interesting to watch how Godiyal takes on the challenge of uniting the party and fight the BJP and get past Harish Rawat, who is known to have put hurdles in the path of every state party president in the past, including his own close and chosen ones.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The views are personal.