Harish Rawat has time till March 28 to deal with 9 Congress rebel MLAs

NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand governor KK Paul’s decision to give chief minister Harish Rawat time till March 28 to prove his majority has provided some breather for Congress to deal with the nine rebel MLAs.

The party may use anti-defection rule, a cabinet expansion and an upcoming Rajya Sabha seat vacancy as political tools to lure back rebels who it claims are backed by BJP’s central leadership.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the Centre of targeting non-NDA state governments. Among the options Rawat and Congress now explore are wooing back some of MLAs by offering them accommodation in the Cabinet that has two vacancies, party insiders said. The upcoming vacancy for a Rajya Sabha seat is also being used as a lure for the rebel camp led by former CM Vijay Bahuguna and agriculture minister Harak Singh Rawat.

All these while dangling the anti-defection law as sword of Damocles over the rebels. “Since the nine MLAs have clearly violated the Congress whip, they could be disqualified and in that case the total strength of the assembly will come down to 60 with Congress having 32 MLAs on its side,” a party official said.

According to Congress insiders, two factors contributed to the crisis. One is the internecine personal clashes between three top leaders — chief minister Rawat, Bahuguna, and Harak Rawat. The second factor is the accumulated burden of the AICC establishment’s past mistakes in not choosing the right leader at the right time for the state unit.

Many point out that the man who has now emerged as a major rebel leader is the same Vijay Bahuguna whom AICC had paratrooped as the CM in 2012 despite his doubtful credentials and by brushing aside opposition from an overwhelming majority of elected party MLAs, only to remove him after his serial failures.

The other rebel leader Harak Rawat has been a wily politician and party hopper. He started with BJP, then joined Janata Dal, then Congress, and now again on the way back to BJP.