Cong asks PDF ministers to stop targeting the party

Infighting in the ruling alliance in Uttarakhand came out in the open today with Congress taking exception to PDF minister Mantri Prasad Naithani's statement targeting the party and advising ministers bearing allegiance to the front to mind their own business.

"Instead of targeting Congress in their statements, PDF ministers should better concentrate on problems confronting their own ministries," Pradesh Congress chief spokesperson Mathuradutt Joshi said in a statement here.

He was reacting to Naithani's statement in Mussoorie recently in which he had accused PCC President Kishore Upadhyay of weakening the party.

PDF is a six-member front of independents, UKD and BSP MLAs who are all members of Rawat's cabinet constituting about half its size.
 

Upadhyay has been suggesting from time to time that the terms and conditions of Congress' alliance with PDF should be more clearly defined.

Noting that the PDF ministers had been duly honoured in return for their support to Congress to form government, Joshi said, most of the problems being faced by the state government pertained to departments held by PDF ministers.

"If they concentrated on the portfolios they hold rather than trying to cut the branch they are sitting on, the state would have benefited from it," the PCC chief spokesperson said.

The two departments held by Naithani, education and drinking water, are functioning poorly under him.

"Teachers in the state are on an agitational course whereas people in general are struggling for potable water," he said.

Congress-PDF alliance in Uttarakhand has not been easy with differences between them coming to the fore from time to time.

Differences within the alliance had crept prior to election to the vacant Rajya Sabha seat in the state a few months ago when both allies announced their separate candidates for the seat.

However, Congress High Command had to intervene to ensure that the PDF candidate withdrew in favour of Pradeep Tamta who finally won.

Congress has always been in favour of cutting down PDF's representation in Harish Rawat's cabinet and increase the share of the party MLAs.

However, Chief Minister Harish Rawat himself has been cautious in his dealings with the PDF which stood like a rock behind him during the political crisis in the state.