Uttarakhand: Harish Rawats’ Universal acceptability might supersede BJPs’ win

Nasir Khuehami

Having the reputation of a hard-working leader, Harish Rawat is a leader of grassroots, when it comes to Uttrakhand politics and life. Rawat was elected as MP from Haridwar in the UPA Government, subsequently was made a Minister of State for Labour and Employment in 2009 and then MoS for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries. Like other congress leaders of his stature, Rawat launched his career as a grassroots politician at the village level, rising to block pramukh, chief of the Congress party’s Sewa Dal and secretary in the party’s youth wing Indian Youth Congress, then reached to Lok Sabha. In July 2011, he was made MoS for Parliamentary Affairs, then was elevated to the rank of a Cabinet Minister in 2012 in an apparent bid to placate him after Bahuguna was made the CM. Rawat has earlier served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2002-08. He won his first Lok Sabha election in 1980 from Almora by defeating BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. He won the Lok Sabha polls in 1984 and 1989 as well.

In 2014, he took the oath of office as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, when Vijay Bahuguna resigned due to criticism of his handling of rehabilitation after the June 2013 floods. In July 2014, he won a by-election from the Dharchula assembly segment, however, in March 2016, nine Congress MLAs including Vijay Bahuguna rebelled against Rawat’s leadership and his government was dislodged. While Harish Rawat did manage to return to power after winning the floor test later that summer, the damage was already done.

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister has been trying to broaden the Congress base and fix fissures at the grassroots level across the hill state, despite lost election from 2 seats in 2017 elections. Rawat is still being considered the most preferred candidate for the post of chief minister in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. Analysts believe he has a rock-solid mass base across the state and has universal acceptability among people. He is State's only leader who is a popular face in both Garhwal to Kumaon region and is the most popular choice for people in coming up assembly elections. Rawat has been extensively touring the state in the last two years, increased his tours, and established himself as the "only leader" with a mass appeal across the state. To make his presence among the masses, Rawat has socialized his political life by involving himself in different cultures, Rawat has been captured while participating in the customs and traditions of different ethnic and cultural groups to make them feel one among them.

But, Having publicly declared his reluctance to contest the assembly election early next year, the Thakur leader, speaking at a ‘ParivartanYatra’ rally, said he would like to see a Dalit chief minister in Uttarakhand. Dalits constitute about 18 percent of the state’s population. But political analysts are of an entirely different opinion. They opine that while the Congress high command may be inclined to project a younger face in Uttarakhand, Rawat remains the best bet under the circumstances. Besides, they say, the former CM is not known to open his cards so easily and, therefore, it’s premature to conclude that Rawat is out of the chief ministerial race. 

Analysts think that after being elected as Campaigning committee chairman and getting freehand from high command, Rawat would manage more than 90 percent of the campaigning. There is no doubt that the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly polls will mainly be about Harish Rawat versus the BJP. BJPs' Central Leadership including heavyweight Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah addressed few rallied in the Himalayan state and have targeted only Harish Rawat. Rawat who was the party’s face for the 2017 addressed 86 rallies in the run-up to the polls. The Congress in the state today has no local important face except Harish Rawat. Other known faces including Harak singh Rawat and Satpal Maharaj have already switched their loyalties to the BJP.

Analysts said that political jostling between Rawat and the BJP is not new, rather since 1980 when Rawat made his debut in the Lok Sabha by defeating the BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi in Almora; he won again in 1984. Accordingly to his Loyalist and Aide Jasbir singh Rawat, he said that Rawat was then known as Dabangg. Despite losing the election on both the seats in 2017 from Haridwar and Almora and then against lost the Lok Sabha election with brute majority in 2019, Rawat has kept his momentum in the politics of the Himalayan state. He has extensively toured the state. He has established himself as an undisputed leader who has universal acceptability across the state. In an interview to national wire agency, he himself claimed his contest will be Harish Rawat vs the BJP. Because Pushkar Singh Dhami is just a small pawn, whom the party has put forward to dodge anti-incumbency and to avoid questions being raised within the BJP. He also asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would not pose a challenge in the Uttarakhand assembly polls and alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party was a "sharp shooter" for the BJP which takes "contracts" to target the Congress. Harish Rawat remains a more than significant political player in the Uttrakhand politics and test of time will prove it again and again.

Despite insisting high command that it should declare its chief ministerial candidate for the 2022 assembly election, Rawat suffered setback to some extent since party claimed that they will fight election under collective leadership. However, Harish Rawat who is a master and seasoned politician has managed to stay in limelight through his cryptic tweets and is continuously touring the hills state. He often fights with several BJP heavy weight leaders on social media over several issues. This has managed to keep him in limelight in the media too.

High Command may not announce him Chief ministerial candidate for 2022 assembly elections, but due to his political depth and cleverness, former Chief Minister has still managed to put the focus of political discussions on him and succeeded himself in becoming talk of the town. Others who remain loggerheads with Rawat remain far behind in political activities as well as in political discourse. After the death of Leader of Opposition, Dr Indira Hridayesh who was one of the strong critic of Rawat inside the party, he has not only managed to get Pritam Singh ousted as PCC Chief but also managed to get his key loyalist Ganesh Godiyal as PCC Chief. Whether it is a matter of political activism or allegations and counter-allegations between the ruling party and the opposition, Harish Rawat is at the centre of discussion. 

His strong opponent, threat and now the Leader of the Opposition, Pritam Singh has also failed to make himself appealing for the people across the state. His political influence in the people remains largely restricted to his own region Chakrata and Dehradun. Rawat lost battle on both the seats in precious election and subsequently lost Lok Sabha in 2019 badly, when he was the Chief Minister of the state also. However, despite such a huge loss, he rose like a phoenix in the Congress and managed to get nominated as the National General Secretary of the Party. He does hold a strong influence in the Congress High Command.

Nasir Khuehami is a commentator on political developments in Uttarakhand. He tweets @NasirKhuehami and can be reached out at khuehamiayaan@gmail.com