The big question is as to what the party will achieve by bringing in an inexperienced Pushkar Singh Dhami
Soroor Ahmed | Clarion India
THE development in Uttarakhand, where on July 4 the third chief minister in four months, Pushkar Singh Dhami took oath gives an idea about the manner in which the Bharatiya Janata Party is thrusting and then subsequently dumping CMs without doing any homework.
His predecessor Tirath Singh Rawat, a Member of Parliament from Garhwal, who was on March 10 suddenly entrusted with the responsibility of the state exactly a year before the Assembly election, is a victim of sheer indecision and chaos within the BJP. It needs to be mentioned that it was on March 11, 2017 that the BJP won 57 out of 70 seats in the election in the state. Ten days later Trivendra Singh Rawat took oath as the eighth chief minister of Uttarakhand.
But on March 10, 2021 he was sent packing and the BJP central leadership, in a way, nominated Tirath as his successor, though he was not an MLA. It was then thought that he would be pitted as the party candidate for the by-poll to be held in the Salt Assembly seat in Almora district on April 17.
This seat got vacant after the death of the BJP MLA Surendra Singh Jeena due to coronavirus on November 12, 2020.
But the party did not field Tirath from Salt for reasons best known to the central leadership. Some media reports suggested that the BJP developed cold feet as it feared that Tirath may lose that election. So, the ticket was given to Surendra’s elder brother, Mahesh Jeena, who actually won the by-poll.Â
Now when the questions are being asked as to why Tirath was not fielded from Salt, the latter himself said that he did not contest as he was suffering from corona virus. He tested positive on March 23 that is just 13 days after becoming the chief minister. During this short period, he visited Kumbh Mela in Haridwar thrice and openly mingled with the huge crowd without wearing a mask and maintaining social distance.
On April 23 and June 13 two MLAs died due to the pandemic. In the normal condition the deaths would have necessitated by-polls in both these seats.
But the Election Commission is not under any legal obligation to hold by-polls in Haldwani and Gangotri, the two seats which fell vacant, as the vacancies arose less than a year before the state Assembly term ends on March 23, 2022. Yet the poll panel sources were quoted in the media as saying that by-elections can still be considered if a special request is received citing a Constitutional need to avert political instability.
In that way Tirath Singh Rawat should have been elected to the Assembly by September 10 as mandated under Article 164 (4) of the Constitution. Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 mandates the Election Commission to fill the casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and State Legislatures through by-elections within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy, provided that the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is one year or more.
As the Election Commission was in no hurry to hold an election due to the second wave of coronavirus, it left Tirath high and dry. Though it is also true that the EC conducted the Assembly election for the four states and one Union Territory, especially of West Bengal at the height of Covid-19. As mentioned, the Salt by-poll was also held on April 17.
Not only that even the rural local bodies polls were held in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh in the second half of April, when officially hundreds of people were dying every day in that state. The counting for all these elections was held on May 2. In that comparison, the number of reported cases of Covid-19 is not even 10 per cent now.
Now the big question is: how is it that the BJP went on making an MP the chief minister of Uttarakhand which does not even have a Legislative Council? Were not all these above aspects studied before making him CM?
When Tirath was not fielded as the party candidate for Salt by-poll on April 17 there was no other vacant seat left in the state as the two sitting legislators died on April 23 and June 13. Had the two MLAs not died one of the sitting legislators may have been asked to quit and make way for Tirath to contest.
But the party leadership, which remained busy in the election campaign in West Bengal and then in handling the crisis within Uttar Pradesh, was suddenly reminded of the hanging fate of Tirath till he was summoned on June 30 to Delhi where he held meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda till late on the same night. On July 2, he again met Nadda and was asked to return to Uttarakhand and submit resignation to the governor late in the night.
Now some party sources said that the central leadership was not very impressed by the style of functioning of Tirath, so he was, in a way, forced out of office in haste.
But the big question is as to what the party will achieve by putting the responsibility of Uttarakhand for seven months on the shoulders of inexperienced Pushkar Singh Dhami. The party took care that an MLA was made the chief minister so that no by-poll is necessitated. The party learnt this lesson but many independent Uttarakhand-watchers are of the view that it may have to pay the price in the election.
