Bahuguna quits, Rawat to take over tomorrow

Resignation comes after Sonia Gandhi holds meeting with senior party leaders

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Friday resigned paving way for a smooth transition of power to his bitter political rival and Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat.

The stage is now set for Rawat to become the 7th Chief Minister of 13-year old hill state tomorrow when a meeting of the Congress legislature party (CLP) will be held to elect the new leader.

Though Rawat is the top contender for the post, the party said that the new leader will be chosen by the ruling party MLAs. A host of top state Congress leaders are also said to have joined the fray. But an air of jubilation is running high in the Rawat camp here with some leaders distributing sweets.

The high command pulled the rug out under Bahuguna for not coming to its expectations especially after the mid June deluge. Instead, the party reposed faith in Rawat despite his rebellion after the 2012 assembly election when he was denied the top job. In 2002 assembly elections also, the party high command had ignored Rawat in a similar fashion.

Congress high command is sending Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Janardan Dwivedi as observers in the tomorrow’s CLP meet.

“On the instructions of the party high command, I have resigned….I extend my all good wishes to the new Chief Minister,” said Bahuguna after handing over his resignation to Governor Aziz Quereshi at Raj Bhavan this afternoon.

Bahuguna also confirmed that the CLP meeting will be held tomorrow to elect new leader which will be followed by the swearing in ceremony. But there was suspense whether Bahuguna will attend the tomorrow’s CLP meet. “As you know my wife is not well (in New Delhi). I am going to New Delhi,”
said Bahuguna.

Meanwhile, leader of the opposition Ajay Bhatt said the change of guard would not change the fortunes of Congress which is bound to lose all the five seats in the parliamentary elections in the state.