Saturday, 24 July 2021 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
The headquarters of state Congress does not have enough office space
Though questions are being raised on the propriety of appointment of four working presidents along with a new Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president in a small state like Uttarakhand by the Congress party the fact of the matter is that the Rajiv Bhawan, the headquarters of Uttarakhand Congress located at the Rajpur road here does not have enough sitting space for them.
Rajiv Bhawan has a dozen odd rooms and all of them are already occupied with various cells of the party and other leaders. On the ground floor the building has an office for the PCC president; its adjacent room functions as the office of Vice President Surya Kant Dhasmana while there is a separate room for general secretaries. Other rooms on the ground floor are occupied by spokespersons, women Congress, Sewa Dal, IT cell, Kisan Congress and ex -servicemen cell. Similarly four rooms on the first floor too are occupied. In such a situation the state unit of the party would have to toil hard to provide respectable accommodation for the offices of four new working presidents.
When contacted, the spokesperson of Uttarakhand Congress Garima Dasauni claimed that the Congress office has enough space. “One needs to have space in hearts. Since the elections are very close our leaders would remain busy in touring different parts of the state,’’ she said.
Ending days of speculation, the Congress high command appointed former MLA from Srinagar Ganesh Godiyal as president of Uttarakhand Congress on Thursday. He replaced Pritam Singh who was shifted to the position of leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP). Former chief minister and general secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Harish Rawat handed over the key assignment of head of the election campaign committee. Rawat was insisting on the appointment of Godiyal on the post of PCC president while the camp led by Pritam Singh was opposing it. Godiyal elevation is being viewed as the virtual acceptance of Rawat’s leadership in Uttarakhand by Congress high command. However in an attempt to accommodate Pritam Singh’s camp, the central leadership applied the Punjab formula in Uttarakhand as well and appointed Jeet Ram, Tilak Raj Behed, Bhuwan Kapdi and Ranjit Rawat as working presidents of the party. All these leaders barring Jeet Ram are said to be close to Pritam Singh.
