New Delhi: Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat is in touch with Congress and is likely to join the party. According to sources, cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat has already resigned. Some MLAs also reportedly resigned along with the Kotdwar MLA. However, during the briefing, Cabinet Minister Subodh Uniyal denied all reports.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has held several meetings with Congress MLA Pritam Singh in the recent past. Rawat had walked out of the ruling BJP’s state cabinet meeting at the secretariat on Friday as he was reportedly upset over alleged “government inaction” over a proposed medical college in his constituency, Kotdwara.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Kotdwar MLA also expressed displeasure over the government’s indecision on its demand for approval for a medical college in Kotdwar.
Having served as an MLA in both Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, Rawat has been a part of the Indian National Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party in the past. He joined the saffron party in 2017 and won the Kotdwar assembly seat.
Notably, Rawat was the Congress candidate from Garhwal in the 2014 general elections.
In the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly elections, the BJP came to power, winning 57 seats in the 70-member house, following the Harish Rawat-led Congress government.
The 2022 election is likely to be a triangular contest between the BJP, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. AAP has announced Colonel (Retd) Ajay Kothiyal as its CM face, while Pushkar Dhami is likely to lead the saffron party. The Congress on Friday said that former CM Harish Rawat will lead the party in the upcoming elections.