The revolt of ten Congress MLA continues to haunt Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat. As the state assembly elections are coming close Rawat is accessing the damage Congress has suffered by losing senior leaders like Vijay Bahuguna, Harak Singh Rawat and eight other legislators.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat challenged, “We will not allow any of the Congress rebels to win. As they have pushed the state politics in abyss.” 

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Making a tweet, Harish Rawat made this statement on Thursday. So, the rebels- who have now joined BJP-is on the CM’s target and their memories give the CM some pain. 

By losing sitting MLAs- Vijay Bahuguna, Harak Singh Rawat, Shaila Rani, Amrita Rawat, Kunwar Pranab Champion, Subodh Uniyal, Umesh Sharma, Pradeep Batra, Rekha Arya and Shailendra Mohan- to BJP, Uttarakhand Congress had suffered a major dent. As, finding a winning candidate in the ten seats, of the rebels, is becoming a major challenge for Harish Rawat and his team.

After becoming Uttarakhand CM, Harish Rawat‘s created uneasiness among senior Congress leaders- by completely ignoring them. The differences grew with each passing day and former Pauri MP Satpal Maharaj was first to leave Congress, followed by ten MLAs joining the bandwagon.

Coming days offers bigger challenge for Harish Rawat and the Haldwani convention of Congress workers proved this. The gathering saw noisy scenes with Congress workers demanding removing independent MLA Harish Chand Durgapal from the dice. Shouting slogans the Congress members left the venue, after robbing much of the sheen of the programme on Thursday.

Harish Rawat has been maintaining a soft stand on the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF)- consisting of 3 independent MLAs, 2 BSP and 1 UKD legislator- which provides support to his government. Uttarakhand CM and state Congress president Kishore Upadhyay remains divided on PDF issue. Harish Rawat wants to give safe passage to PDF MLAs, while Kishore Upadhyay is against this. 

Besides rebels, solving the PDF issue is also a challenge before Harish Rawat.