Sunday, 26 September 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
An unscheduled visit by the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to the residence of senior cabinet minister Yashpal Arya on Saturday morning triggered political speculation in Uttarakhand.
The CM arrived at Arya’s house at around 9 am and the duo had breakfast together. It is learnt that both leaders held a closed door discussion for about an hour. The meeting generated speculations that the CM Dhami wanted to preempt any possible defection of Arya to the Congress party. After the meeting Arya denied that he is defecting back to the Congress party.
The head of the campaign committee of the Congress party and former chief minister Harish Rawat had recently stated that he wants that someone from the Dalit community becomes the chief minister of the state. Since Yaspal Arya is a dalit leader with stature, the political circles are agog that Arya could swith sides before the assembly elections.
It is pertinent to mention here that Arya was in Congress party before moving to the BJP in the year 2016. He held important positions such as PCC president, Vidhan Sabha speaker and cabinet minister when he was in the Congress party. Arya along with his son Sanjeev Arya was offered a ticket by the BJP and both the father son duo were elected to the Vidhan Sabha.
