PNS | DEHRADUN
The Congress is evoking Kedar pride to garner public support for its candidate Manoj Rawat in the ensuing Assembly by-election. Top leaders of the party including former chief minister Harish Rawat, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara, leader of opposition in the State Assembly Yashpal Arya and the former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal are consistently raising the issue of neglect of the area and the insult of Baba Kedarnath in their public meetings to attack the ruling BJP. The party leaders are also raising the issue of alleged theft of 238 kg of gold from Kedarnath temple last year.
In the public meetings, the Congress candidate Manoj Rawat is targetting the BJP government for ruining the Yatra this year and the anti encroachment drive undertaken by the government which he claims has affected the livelihood of local people in the area. Manoj Rawat is also trying to portray the by-election as the direct contest between him and chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. He is also targeting the government for being lenient on the outsiders who have purchased large chunks of land in the mountainous areas taking advantage of the successive amendments incorporated by the BJP government in Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh) Zamindari Abolition and Land Management Act 1951. The Congress workers and other senior leaders of the party are trying to project Manoj Rawat as the person who first of all raised protest in the Assembly when the Trivendra Singh Rawat government amended the Act ostensibly to benefit the outsiders. “ Manoj Rawat is the only legislator who had brought a private member bill for annulling the amendments incorporated in the land laws. He is the symbol of aspiration of the people for a stringent Bhoo Kanoon,’’ said a local Congress leader.
Interacting with The Pioneer, Rawat said that the people of Kedarnath are eager to teach BJP a lesson in the by-election. He said that one can understand the intent of the government that after selling land to the outsiders it has imposed a tax on the water of the streams.
The PCC president Mahara said the Congress party is seeking votes in the name of the development and public issues but the BJP is misusing official machinery and contesting the election in the name of religion and false promises. He said that the BJP not only tampered with the prestige of Baba Kedar but also involved in missing gold from the shrine.
