Candid Notes

Friday, 11 June 2021 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun

Search for Seat

After an initial snub where Satpal Mahraaz expressed his reluctance to leave his Chaubattakhal assembly seat for the CM Tirath Singh Rawat many MLAs including a minister are said to have lined up for the sacrifice and requested TSR II to contest from the constituency represented by them in the current Vidhan Sabha.  After changing the CM in an attempt to tide over the anti incumbency the saffron party is now deliberating on sending the incumbent CM into the assembly to fulfil the constitutional obligation. Team TSR II is learnt to have zeroed in on Yamkeshwar, Chaubattakhal and Gangotri – where by election would be held due to death of sitting MLA- as safe bets for their leader. Incidentally Yamkeshwar is represented by the daughter of BJP stalwart and former CM, B C Khanduri who also happens to be the Guru of TSR II. The grapevine has it that the Khanduri scion is not in a comfortable position in Yamkeshwar and offering the seat to CM and attaining a moral high ground seems a good option to her. Who knows if the Garhwal Lok Sabha seat represented by TSR II falls into her lap in the bargain? 

Wary of TSR I

The recent visit to Delhi by the former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat where he met the top leadership of the saffron party has made his detractors within the party uncomfortable. His visit drew speculation that considering his vast experience in various organisational positions he had held in the past, the BJP can draw TSR I into the party’s organisation and can offer him some influential position. It is imperative that by accommodating TSR I the saffron party wants to sooth his frayed nerves and plans to use his organisational skills for the benefit of the party. However this development is not going down well with those who created a pressure group within the party which ultimately led to the removal of TSR I and his replacement with TSR II in the state.

Congress’ Comfort

A tweet by Rajya Sabha MP and national media in-charge of BJP, Anil Baluni claiming that one heavyweight leader of Congress party would come into saffron party’s fold created a storm in politics of the Himalayan state on Wednesday. The speculations however were laid to rest when Jitin Prasad, an influential leader of Uttar Pradesh who once was a close aide of RaGa joined BJP. The timing of the tweet and the anxiety it generated among the Congressmen of Uttarakhand can be understood from the exodus of leaders the grand old party witnessed just ahead of assembly elections of 2017. Tongue firmly in cheek, one political commentator observed that the Congress party should not worry about its leaders joining the ranks of the Saffron party and instead focus on the assembly elections slated early next year. He pointed out that there are very few leaders of standing left in the Congress party now and the BJP which is brimming to the top with imported leaders is not in a position to accommodate more into its fold.