Four months into the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, Tirath Singh Rawat has been divested of his charge and duties as the State Chief Minister. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may try hard to convince the electorate that it acted keeping the interests of its functionaries and electorates in mind, but this may prove to be insufficient while addressing the glaring gaps in governance.
The state was in the news first for the Kumbh mismanagement and then for clamping the pandemic hit by a conflict of interest, with nobody showing up to take accountability. People of the state have been facing the consequences of natural calamities staring at them. And now there is political uncertainty for which Uttarakhand is famously tagged and labelled.
Eleven chief ministers over the past 20 years have left their term in the middle, beginning with Vijay Bahuguna and Harish Rawat falling out of favours with their leadership. Tirath Singh Rawat should have stepped out long ago if he was doubtful of winning the by-polls. He faced a downfall in his party after his “ripped- jeans” statement.
Since then, he has been pointed out for the fake Covid tests in the state and challenged by scientists. All these make the saffron party wary of its prospects as the road ahead looks patchy with Rawat. After hard negotiations, persuasions and bargaining, the driver’s seat has been given to Pushkar Singh Dhami for now, with the RSS likely to dictate and dominate the situation.