Uttarakhand Assembly Elections: ‘Will be CM or sit at home,’ says Congress’ Harish Rawat

As Uttarakhand awaits to know the fate of its government next month, former Chief Minister and Congress senior leader Harish Rawat has put out a statement suggesting an ongoing power struggle inside the grand old party. Reacting to questions about the odds of him becoming the CM again in case of a Congress majority in Uttarakhand, Hawat said that either he would be the CM or sit at home.

“Either I will be the CM or I will sit at home,” Rawat was quoted by multiple leading national dailies. The statement received a response from the Congress state president Pritam Singh, who said that the party high command will decide the CM face. “As per tradition, all MLAs of the party submit their consent for a person following which the central leadership approves it,” Singh reportedly said.

Earlier in the day, Rawat asserted confidence in a Congress victory in Uttarakhand, suggesting that he would be talking to interim party president Sonia Gandhi to “to take a call on the party`s chief ministerial face,” news agency ANI reported.

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“Congress party is going to form the government in Uttarakhand. People have voted for development. This development (voting) has happened in favour of Congress. Knowing this, the Bharatiya Janata Party is tense and anxious. It clearly shows that BJP is going to lose elections in the state,” Rawat said.

"We will request our party president Sonia Gandhi to decide the CM. Our CM face will be the one whom people want (Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Mann Bhave)," he further added.

Rawat has also claimed that no one in the party has any objections to his candidature as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

The Himalayan state of Uttarakhand awaits the results of the Assembly Elections 2022 on March 10, for which it voted across 70 assembly constituencies on February 14.