PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
The factionalism in Congress came to the fore during the Parivartan Sankalp Sammelan organised by the party in Pithoragarh on Tuesday. The programme was presided over by the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Ganesh Godiyal and was attended by many senior leaders of the party including Dharchula MLA Harish Dhami and local MLA Mayukh Mahar. Ruckus was created in the programme when the district president of Mahila Congress Bhawana Nagarkoti started her address. In her speech, Nagarkoti raised the issue of municipal body election in Pithoragarh and blamed local MLA Mayukh Mahar for the defeat of Congress candidate. This infuriated Mahar who was sitting on the stage and he left the programme in a huff. His supporters started raising slogans in his favour and they also left the venue with Mahar. The PCC president Godiyal and the district Congress president Mukesh Pant tried to restrain Nagarkoti when she started speaking against the MLA but by that time the situation had taken a bad turn.
Later interacting with the media, Godiyal said that the party leaders and the workers should exercise restraint and should focus on exposing the anti-people policies of ruling BJP. The PCC president added that he will meet Mahar on the issue.
In the election of Municipal Corporation of Pithoragarh, the Congress party had fielded Anju Lunthi as its candidate while local MLA Mayukh Mahar supported independent candidate Monika Mahar. In the election the BJP candidate Kalpana Devlal took advantage of division in the votes of Congress to secure victory.
Cong serves notices to Nagarkoti, Lunthi
DEHRADUN: Taking a stern note of the Pithoragarh episode, the president of Uttarakhand Mahila Congress, Jyoti Rautela has dissolved the Pithoragarh district Mahila Congress unit. The party has also served show cause notices to its now former Mahila Congress district chief Bhawana Nagarkoti, local leaders Mahendra Singh Lunthi and Deepak Lunthi. In a letter to the leaders, the general secretary of the State Congress Rajendra Singh Bhandari said that they should reply to the notice within three days failing which strict disciplinary action will be initiated against them.
