Uneasy truce in Uttarakhand BJP

The rebel Minister walked out of a Cabinet meeting on Friday evening in Dehradun, declaring his intentions of quitting his post and party.

Harak Rawat, who had joined the BJP in 2016 from the Congress, is Forest Minister in the Pushkar Dhami- led BJP Government in Uttarakhand. File Image.

An uneasy truce seems to have been declared in the ongoing intra party travails of the BJP in Uttarakhand, with rebel Minister Harak Singh Rawat , who had dramatically walked out of a Cabinet meeting on Friday evening in Dehradun, declaring his intentions of quitting his post and party, being brought around to reconsider after a shared meal at Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s residence on Saturday.

Mr. Rawat, who had joined the BJP in 2016 from the Congress, is Forest Minister in the Pushkar Dhami- led BJP Government in Uttarakhand. He walked out of a Cabinet meet in Dehradun on Friday ostensibly because his demand for a medical college in Kotdwar was not being acceded to. Using strong words, Mr. Rawat had said he was not being treated well in the Cabinet and that no importance was being given to promises that he had made. BJP sources confirmed to The Hindu that Mr. Rawat was told of a policy decision made by the State Government that no more than one medical college per district would be funded by the State Government. Mr. Rawat had asked for a fund of ₹25 crores.

Congress sources, on their part, said that they had been in talks with Mr. Rawat for a while through their senior leader Pritam Singh and a package deal for Mr. Rawat and MLAs loyal to him in the BJP such as Umesh Sharma Kau to return to the Congress was in an advanced stage.

BJP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni, however have managed to douse the fires a bit with Mr. Rawat having dinner at Mr. Dhami’s residence on Saturday night and singing his praises, including calling Mr. Dhami his “little brother.”

Mr. Rawat claimed that his issue with regard to the setting up of a medical college in Kotdwar had been resolved. “He [Pushkar Singh Dhami] is the son of a soldier as am I. I have known him for more than 30-40 years, even when he was a boy. He has a heart full of compassion and mercy, and for the first time the State has got a Chief Minister like that. I bless him as an elder brother that he returns the BJP to power in full majority in the State,” he said in an audio clip released by his office after the dinner meet.

The Congress and the BJP, however, are united in one thought over this particular episode, that this may not be the last word on it and that any truce drawn now has every chance of not holding in the future.