A grim silence prevailed over the Congress headquarters here on Wednesday even as reports came in that the party chief Sonia Gandhi had held a meeting with senior party leaders to scotch the confusion thrown up by frequent leadership change speculations in Uttarakhand.
‘We are scared to face the negative consequences in the coming gram sabha and Lok Sabha polls if the current confusion continues. The best Ms Gandhi could do is to immediately announce whether Mr. Vijay Bahuguna would continue as Chief Minister or would be replaced’, said several leaders at the Congress Bhawan.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has been making fun of the Congress saying that all development activity had come to a standstill as atleast four ambitious Ministers had been openly lobbying to oust Mr. Bahuguna. ‘ What is worse is that the Congress high command seems to be silent on the issue meaning that Uttarakhand did not merit any attention among the Congress top wigs’ , the Leader of Opposition Ajay Bhatt said adding that corruption and crime had surpassed all levels under the present Government.
A senior Minister informed that Ms Gandhi had held a meeting with party general secretary incharge of Uttarakhand Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Janardhan Dwivedi and Ahmed Patel to discuss the turmoil in Uttarakhand on Wednesday. She is likely to take a call on the fate of Mr. Bahuguna soon, he said.
It may be mentioned that Ministers Indira Hirdeyesh, Harak Singh Rawat, Yashpal Arya and the Union Minister Harish Rawat have been lobbying for the top job over the past month. Ms Hirdeyesh went to extent of publicly announcing that she was the senior most and most experienced person deserving to be Chief Minister.
Mr. Bahuguna too launched a signature campaign in his favour and submitted a list of 22 MLAs to Ms Soni recently. MLAs Nav Prabhat and Pranav Champion however denied signing any letter favouring Mr. Bahuguna.
Several MLAs close to Mr. Rawat are said to be in touch with the ruling coalition partner
Progressive Democratic Front MLAs to support him if named Chief Minister. The PDF chairperson and Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani however maintain that their support was for the Congress and not any particular person as Chief Minister. ‘We do hope the Congress high command ends the speculation galore and will consult us before naming a new person as Chief Minister’ , he said.
