Setback for BJP ahead of Uttarakhand polls, Minister Harak Singh Rawat likely to join Congress

New Delhi: Uttarakhand Minister Harak Singh Rawat is in touch with Congress and is likely to join the party, said sources in the party. According to sources, cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat has already given his resignation. Some MLAs also reportedly resigned with the Kotdwar MLA. However, during the briefing, cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal denied all the reports.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has had several meetings with Congress MLA Pritam Singh in the recent past. Rawat had walked out of the state Cabinet meeting of the ruling BJP at the secretariat on Friday as he was reportedly upset over alleged "government inaction" over a proposed medical college in his constituency, Kotdwar. 

Attacking Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami-led Bharatiya Janata Party government, the Kotdwar MLA also expressed anger over the government's indecision to his demand for approval for the medical college in Kotdwar.

Having served as an MLA in both Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, Rawat has been part of the Indian National Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party in the past. He switched to the Saffron party in 2017 and won from Kotdwar assembly seat,

Notably, Rawat was a candidate of Congress from Garhwal in the 2014 general election.

In the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly election, BJP came to power by winning 57 seats in the 70-member House, succeeding the Harish Rawat-led Congress government.

The 2022 polls are likely to be a triangular contest between BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. AAP has declared Colonel (retd.) Ajay Kothiyal as its CM face, while Pushkar Dhami is likely to lead the saffron party. The Congress on Friday said former CM Harish Rawat would lead the party in the upcoming polls.