Harish Rawat’s plan to target nine defected MLAs gets go-ahead

NEW DELHI: The Congress leadership is giving an added attention to a particular batch of nine assembly seats in Uttarakhand which Chief Minister Harish Rawat insists will be “the tiling factor” in the upcoming elections.

The All India Congress Committee has given the go-ahead to Harish Rawat’s pitch for “target hitting” by fielding the “strongest possible” candidates against the nine party MLAs who had defected to the BJP last year.

The nine MLAs included former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and senior leader Harak Singh Rawat.

Sources said during his recent meetings with AICC representatives, Rawat insisted on fielding his hand-picked entrenched Congress leaders in the nine constituencies where the defected MLAs are expected to contest on BJP tickets.

A combination of two factors — anger of local Congressmen against those who deserted the party and growing resentment among local BJP leaders and supporters against “Congress intruders” bagging the lotus symbol — can turn these seats for the Congress, provided the party fields strong candidates, he has argued.

As the AICC screening committee is slated to hold a crucial meeting on Wednesday (provided the CM is discharged from hospital) to firm up the list of candidates for Uttarakhand, an influential Congress central leader involved in the process said: “A decision has been taken to field particularly strong candidates in the nine seats where our MLAs had defected to the BJP last year.”

Aware that Rawat is the tallest leader of the state Congress with a tight grip on the party organisational and campaign machinery, the AICC has also decided to give him a major say in deciding candidates and in finalising the campaign strategy.

The AICC is not giving much importance to state party chief Kishore Upadhyaya’s recent public sulking as the central leadership considers him a “political lightweight” who was made the PCC president due to Rawat’s requirement for a “token Brahmin head at the PCC”, said sources.

AICC in charge Ambika Soni is learnt to have already instructed Upadhyaya to play a supporting role to Rawat.