Rawat plays it safe; to contest from two seats

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat is likely to contest from two assembly seats Dharchula and Doiwala to enter the state Vidhan Sabha.

With the election commission on Wednesday issuing poll schedule for the July 21 byelection for three vacant assembly seats in the hill state, Rawat, who is recovering from the injury at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at New Delhi, seems to be facing the heat both on political front as well as on health ground these days. Top officials confirmed that Rawat has been advised operation by doctors.

But sources said Rawat cannot take a risk of operation at this juncture as he will be bed-ridden for a longer time. On the other hand, he has to contest the assembly election under the constitutional obligation where he must enter vidhan sabha before July 31.

After weighing several options, Rawat has now decided to contest from two assembly seats - Dharchula and Doiwala to enter vidhan sabha. This is because Rawat has come under fire for choosing the safe Dharchula seat instead of Doiwala. Top BJP leaders had slammed Rawat for "running away" from Doiwala to Dharchula.

"Rawat is contesting from both Doiwala and Dharchula seats," said a source close to the Chief Minister stating that Rawat would not like to give any impression to BJP that he was running away from Doiwala where Congress performance was pretty bad in the recent Lok Sabha election.

Interestingly, political bitterness between Rawat and former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has also intensified lately. Bahuguna was upset after Rawat managed to bring his close political associate Kishore Upadhayay as the new PCC chief. This was being seen as a big blow to Bahuguna, who was not on good terms with Upadhayay.

After the change of guard in February, Bahuguna still have an axe to grind and wanted his close confidantes in the ruling Congress to get plum posts. But this was not acceptable to Rawat.

Recently, the Chief Minister had also refused to accept Bahuguna's request for a Rajya Sabha seat. MLAs supporting Bahuguna, like Subodh Uniyal and Vijaypal Sajwan have also lodged a protest against the appointment of Upadhayay with the high command. "We are ready to fight for justice," said Uniyal, a Congress MLA from Narendarnagar.