Friday, 18 October 2024 | Gajendra Singh Negi
BJP’s dilemma
BJP seems to be facing the problem of plenty in choosing its candidate for the crucial Assembly bypoll of Kedarnath. There is section of the party which believes that Aishwarya Rawat, the daughter of late Shaila Rani Rawat should be fielded by the party to garner sympathy votes while another is backing candidature of formidable former MLA and president of State Mahila Morcha, Asha Nautiyal. The AAP’s chief ministerial face in 2022 Vidhan Sabha election Col ( retd) Ajay Kothiyal and Kuldeep Rawat, who secured more votes than BJP and Congress candidates in the elections of 2017 and 2022 respectively as an independent candidate, are also vying for saffron party’s ticket from the constituency. The BJP leaders were ecstatic when Kothiyal, Kuldeep Rawat and a couple of other leaders, who had unsuccessfully contested from the constituency in the past, joined the bandwagon of the saffron party but their bliss seems to have turned into a dilemma now when more than half a dozen leaders have thrown their hats in the ring for party’s ticket. It is almost certain that at least a couple of these leaders can turn rebels if denied ticket by the party.
Factional fight
While BJP is facing the problem of plenty, factionalism is continuing to become an Achilles heel for the Congress in the Himalayan State. The factional fight in the grand old party became apparent in the flip flop committed by the in-charge of the State unit of the party Kumari Selja in selection of observers for the Kedarnath Assembly by-election. She first appointed deputy leader of Congress legislature party Bhuwan Kapdi and MLA Virendra Jaati as observers on the recommendation of the State unit. However four days later, apparently under pressure from the leaders anathematic to Mahara she appointed former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal as senior observer and Badrinath MLA Lakhpat Butola as observer in addition to Kapdi and Jaati. Mahara is reportedly furious for not keeping him into the loop in the selection of Godiyal and Butola and is learnt to have conveyed his displeasure to the party high command on the issue which seems to have handed over the colossal task of registering victory in Kedarnath bypoll to Ganesh Godiyal.
Cyber aware
Skeletons have started tumbling out from the closet of the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA), the nodal agency for IT related activities of Uttarakhand government after the recent ransomware attack on the State Data Centre which crippled the IT infrastructure of Uttarakhand and halted the operation of government websites. Questions are now being asked about the competency of the experts deployed by the ITDA and the process of their selection in the SDC. It has also come into fore that the ITDA is bereft of necessary manpower to accomplish the task assigned to it. It is now imperative for the State government to work on strengthening the data centre and rectify the vulnerabilities exposed by the cyber bullies in the IT infrastructure. The cyber attackers have also given a wakeup call to the authorities to upgrade the IT infrastructure to prevent repetition of such attacks in future.
