Wednesday 13, 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Former chief minister and head of the election campaign committee of Congress party in Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat has said that if any of the leaders who had deserted the party in March 2016 want to come back to Congress then s/he should seek apology for their deeds. Talking to the media persons in Dehradun, Rawat made it clear that he doesn’t have any personal animosity towards any leader but wants to ensure that wrong precedents are not set in Uttarakhand. In March 2016, a group of Congress MLAs led by former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna and Harak Singh Rawat had rebelled against the then CM Harish Rawat when the budget session was in progress and had joined the BJP. Rawat added that the case of Yashpal Arya who had defected to BJP just ahead of the assembly election of 2017 was different and he cannot be compared with the turncoats of 2016. He accepted that presence of Arya in Congress would have a positive effect on the electoral prospects of the party in the upcoming assembly elections.
However a day after Yashpal Arya joined the Congress party along with his MLA son Sanjeev Arya, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Ganesh Godiyal claimed that a situation of stampede prevails in Uttarakhand BJP. Clearly indicating that many more leaders of BJP can switch sides, Godiyal said that the Congress party believes in moral values and wants that the BJP should respect the sentiment of the Congress party.
Talking to the media persons at headquarters of Uttarakhand Congress here on Tuesday, Godiyal said that BJP which in recent times and five years ago had engaged in activities to damage Congress should understand that the Congress party is strong like a rock.
