The >clean sweep of the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand by the Bharatiya Janata Party has shaken the Congress government in the State.
The Congress has 33 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly. The loyalties of those legislators, however, are divided among Chief Minister Harish Rawat, former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and Satpal Maharaj, the former Congress MP who defected to the BJP in March.
Sources in the Congress said there was need to pacify the MLAs who support Mr. Bahuguna and Mr. Maharaj for the party to retain its majority in the Assembly.
The election result points to a strong anti-incumbency sentiment against the Congress in Uttarakhand. Much of the distrust among the electorate is a result of the shoddy rehabilitation and reconstruction work, under the Vijay Bahuguna government, following the floods last July. In February, Mr. Rawat replaced Mr. Bahuguna as Chief Minister but did not get enough time to redeem the image of the party.
Former Congress spokesperson Surendra Singh Arya said, “It is being perceived that pressure from six Congress MLAs who are in Mr. Maharaj’s camp would increase in the coming weeks.”
The Congress in Uttarakhand is leading the Progressive Democratic Front government, including three Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs, two of whom were recently suspended from the party, three Independent MLAs and one Uttarakhand Kranti Dal MLA.
The two suspended BSP MLAs — Surendra Rakesh and Hari Das — have extended indirect support to the Congress. Mr. Arya said Mantri Prasad Naithani, an Independent MLA who is a State Cabinet Minister, might withdraw support to the Congress as he is supposed to be close to Mr. Maharaj.
To pacify the supporters of Mr. Bahuguna and Mr. Maharaj, Mr. Rawat, on Thursday, made seven Congress MLAs parliamentary secretaries. While the Chief Minister is busy settling the disputes within the party to save his government, the BJP has adopted a “wait-and-watch” approach.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Bhatt said: “It is against our policy to disturb the State government. The infighting among the Congress MLAs will surely affect the State government. We will watch for now and do what will be in the larger interest of the State.”
BJP general secretary Prakash Pant said: “Mr. Rawat promised his central leadership that he would get the party at least three seats from the State. Now that the party has lost all five, it is still to be seen what kind of pressure comes on Mr. Rawat from his party leadership. If the Congress government goes, it would be because of the internal issues of the party.”
