New Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat starts tenure with a slap to party worker

DEHRADUN: There couldn't have been a worse beginning for the Congress that looked to give itself an image makeover in Uttarakhand with a change of guard at the top. Union minister for water resources Harish Rawat, who replaced Vijay Bahuguna as the hill state's new CM on Saturday, slapped an over enthusiastic 25-year-old party worker who wouldn't stop shouting "Harish Rawat zindabad".

TV cameras were quick to capture the image of an angry Rawat landing a resounding blow on the young man's face moments after some of his happy-faced supporters gave what they thought was a rousing reception for their new leader.

Promptly plunging into his first controversy, Rawat, 65, gave a lame explanation for his fist of fury. "Being an elderly Congress leader I slapped the youth out of love and not due to any other reason," he said after he came out of the CLP meeting that anointed him Uttarakhand's 8th CM.

Earlier in the day, Rawat was sworn in as the CM after the 33-member Congress Legislature Party unanimously elected him as their chief in the presence of senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Janardan Dwivedi who flew to Dehradun from Delhi two hours before the CLP meeting began. They later presented a copy of Congress boss Sonia Gandhi's letter nominating Rawat to his new post.