Dehra Dun: With the Congress coordination committee in Uttarakhand deciding to remove the state party chief Yashpal Arya, intense lobbying has begun to grab the top job in the ruling party.
Top state leaders, including union minister Harish Rawat, member of parliament Satpal Maharaj, and state minister Harak Singh Rawat, are camping in New Delhi with an eye set on the post of PCC president, Congress sources here said.
All these leaders either want themselves to be given the top job or their close confidante be entrusted with the key responsibility, they said.
Chief minister Vijay Bahuguna is also trying to install his own man in the top job.
The move to remove Arya came during the first meeting of the coordination committee which met on August 13 and decided to remove Arya stating he was overburdened with ministerial job.
The coordination committee chairman and Congress general secretary Chaudhary Birendra Singh raked up the issue of "one man, one post" and conceded that there has been "laxity" in working of the party since the formation of the Congress government headed by Bahuguna in March this year.
Singh also said the new PCC chief would be selected shortly, a demand put up by Harish Rawat.
While Harak Singh Rawat, who holds the key portfolio of agriculture, wants to become the PCC chief, Harish and Maharaj want their own men to be given the job. Harish has forwarded the name of Pithoragarh MP Pardip Tamta in this regard.
However, it was not yet clear whether the Congress high
command would take a decision to remove Arya before the Tehri Lok Sabha by-election which is likely to be held next month.
Tehri Lok Sabha by-election was necessitated after Bahuguna quit following his election to the state assembly from Sitarganj.
A section of state party leaders including Maharaj are still advocating that Arya should be allowed to continue as PCC chief till the Tehri by-poll is held.
On the other hand, union minister Rawat wants that Arya be removed immediately and Tamta be given the job in his place.
"The ball in now in the court of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to take an appropriate decision," said a state Congress leader.
PTI
