Uttarakhand CM in a fix over choosing Assembly seat

Harish Rawat, who took oath as chief minister on February 1, must become an MLA within six months

After the Congress rout, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat is facing another test of his political ability of selecting a safe Assembly constituency for himself in the face of a strong Modi wave.

Under constitutional obligation, the chief minister, who took oath on February 1 this year, must become an MLA within six months of the swearing-in ceremony. This indicates that Rawat has very less time to choose his Assembly constituency.

After bestowing ministerial rank posts to disgruntled MLAs to ward off any perceived political threat to his government, Rawat has started an exercise to choose his constituency.

With Doiwala constituency falling vacant, the chief minister’s first preference would have been this seat which falls under the Haridwar parliamentary seat. Since BJP leader and former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal defeated his wife, Renuka, by a huge margin from Haridwar, Rawat has to quit the Doiwala seat.

On the other side, the overall performance of Congress candidates was poor in all five Lok Sabha seats.

Rawat flew to Dharchula Assembly constituency on Wednesday in Pithoragarh district. “The chief minister is probably zeroing in on Doiwala and Dharchula seats,” said a senior Congress leader.

Harish Dhami, a Rawat loyalist, is ready to quit his Dharchula seat for him. In case Rawat contests from Dharchula, the BJP will field senior BJP leader Prakash Pant to contest against him.

It is likely that the BJP will bring either Trivendra Singh Rawat or Satpal Maharaj to contest from Doiwala if Rawat chooses to contest from the seat.

Someshwar, a reserved seat, is also falling vacant after Ajay Tamta became MP from Almora. In case, Congress wins both the two seats, the strength of Congress on its own will go upto 35 from the present 33 in the 70-member House. The BJP has 30 members in the House.