High Command has asked me to contest from Haridwar but I did a blunder says Harish Rawat

The Congress general secretary and member, CWC Harish Rawat said that it was his own blunder to have contested from Nainital- Uham Singh Nagar lok Sabha constituency whereas the party high command was initially making him contest from Haridwar constituency from where he was an MP earlier.

Rawat however, thanked his senior party leaders for accepting his request by giving him the Congress ticket from Nainital Lok Sabha from where he lost with a heavy margin of three lakh votes against the BJP state president Ajay Bhatt.

Harish Rawat was today responding to the questions of journos at party office in Dehradun.

Rawat answered this question when a scribe asked him about the objection raised by a senior party leader Indira Hiryadesh saying that the former should have contested from Haridwar than Nainital seat.

It may be recalled that a bete noire of Harish Rawat, and leader of the opposition in state assembly Hridayesh was herself interested from Nainital seat but was let off by Rawat’s political clout at the centre.

Answering a question on the state Congress’s poor performance and negligible cooperation of party workers in the general elections in Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat instead of opposing the party president Pritam Singh, very cleverly sidelined the issue by saying that when the party loses badly there is no point on passing the buck on others as during bad times everyone finds faults a create issues of discussion for morning breakfast n thereafter for 24×7 news. This is absurd he added.

Harish Rawat said there is now a greater responsibility on party leaders and workers to revitalise n revive the party in the state in order to meet the challenge in 2022 when the state assembly elections are due.

This is the second consecutive defeat of Harish Rawat, first losing from two assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand in 2017 when the Congress badly lost at the hustings, giving 57 seats to BJP in the state assembly.

This time too, Rawat lost by more than three lakh votes from Nainital Udham Singh Nagar seat against the state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt.

It was Harish Rawat only under whose chief minister ship from 2015 to 17 that the Congress party suffered a split with 11 lawmakers leaving it to join BJP just because they were politically humliated by the then CM Rawat.

Several of them are today ministers in BJP’s Uttarakhand cabinet headed by Trivendra Singh Rawat. As, if it was not enough Mr. Rawat is again at loggerheads with the state Congress president Pritam Singh and the leader of opposition Indira Hriyadesh who complain of Rawat’s undue n unnecessary interference in state politics, not allowing them to function adequately n with ease, despite the fact that the latter has been elevated as the national general secretary of Congress with the charge of Assam Affairs n also inducted in the CWC, the highest decision making body of the party.

But Harish Rawat’s obsession with Uttarakhand never dies down n he is there every third day. Harish Rawat’s supporters have recently asked for the resignation of the Uttarakhand Congress chief Pritam Singh n Indira Hriyadesh on moral grounds after the party fared badly at the hustings.

Rawat is always mobile n active and is leaving for Kedarnath Shrine to seek Baba’s blessings. Three days ago he was in Roorkie attending a Durgah Piran Kaliyar Sharif. He has almost visited all the renowned temples of Haridwar n Uttarakhand as well.