Congress infighting robbed much sheen of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) meeting in Dehradun on Tuesday. The differences in party leaders were a major highlight of the meeting. The situation turned embracing with former Uttarakhand assembly speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal admitting groupism in Congress from the stage and also accusing state Congress president Pritam Singh of not paying required honour to Harish Rawat.
The sudden promotion of sidelined ex-Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat by Congress has failed to end differences among Congress leaders.
Harish Rawat was recently appointed national general secretary of the All India Congress Committee. The newly appointed Congress in-charge of Uttarakhand Anugrah Narayan Singh got a firsthand chance to watch the party infighting at the state headquarters on Tuesday.
The Harish Rawat group was annoyed with the move of state Congress president Pritam Singh to stay in his office when Congress national general secretary Harish Rawat arrived in the Uttarakhand office in Dehradun on Tuesday and not standing to welcome the senior leader. Harish moved around the office and offered floral tribute to late Rajiv Gandhi. Pritam Singh joined him half a hour later.
The newly appointed national Congress general secretary Harish Rawat delivered his speech and when he was step down from the dice, party workers surrounded him by garlanding him. This forced state Congress president Pritam Singh to announce, “Such type of indiscipline will not be tolerated.”
Till recently Harish Rawat was struggling to keep his position intact in Uttarakhand Congress, but after the recent development, he and his supporters have received a new zeal of life. The anti-Rawat group is not surrendering and coming days it is all set to witness the party infighting intensifying.
The Congress drama touched tizzy heights when former Uttarakhand assembly speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal was offered a chance to speak at the meeting. Lashing the state president, Kunjwal said, “Pritam Singh was not standing to welcome the national general secretary Harish Rawat. I can clearly watch party infighting. We had to suffer defeat in the last assembly election due to this factor. If people close to some persons are provided posts in the state Congress working committee this will provide a wrong message in the public.”
While the Uttarakhand Congress chief Pritam Singh devoted his speech by attacking the BJP, his rivals were more frank in hitting him in the meeting. The meet also gave the former state Congress president Kishore Upadhyaya to express his grievances. He said, “After the 2017 state assembly elections I was made a scapegoat and removed from the post.”