Dalit card for RS poll backfires on Congress

DEHRADUN: With Jeet Ram, a Congress MLA from reserve constituency of Tharali in Chamoli district, now expressing his displeasure with the Harish Rawat government, it appears that the Dalit card has backfired on the party. After the naming of Pradeep Tamta as party candidate, several voices have been raised within the party and the situation dipped to the extent that the entire state top brass has to rush to Delhi to settle the issue. Even Congress state chief Kishore Upadhyay, who was among the front runners for the Rajya Sabha seat, did not appear too pleased with the recent developments.

The issue of Dalits leaders of Congress not liking Tamta’s nomination gained momentum as Jeet Ram and Mamta Rakesh, party lawmaker from SC seat of Bhagwanpur, meet at state minister Yashpal Arya’s residence in Yamuna Colony area. While Arya and Jeet Ram termed it a routine wagging, sources were of the view that prominent Dalit leaders of Uttarakhand were not pleased the developments.
According to party sources, Jeet Ram reportedly submitted his resignation papers with Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, however CM Harish Rawat later convinced him to withdraw the resignation.

When contacted Jeet Ram told TOI, “I am definitely annoyed with the Harish Rawat government. The development of Tharali has been completely ignored. Being the elected representative of the area, I am answerable to the people of the constituency.” The legislator pointed out that recently there were talks of creating eight new districts but the name of Tharali was omitted from the list. “Since long I have been raising the issue of declaring Tharali as new district but no heed is being paid to my request,” added the Congress MLA.

However, this was only the only reason behind his anger. Jeet Ram asserted that the three Congress MLAs from Chamoli district backed the party during the trust vote and helped it sail through. “Now it is time that legislators of Chamoli are given a chance in the state Cabinet. Two cabinet berth are lying vacant for a long time now and it is time that Rawat takes a final stand on the issue,” he added.
On the meeting with Arya, he said that it was a “routine” meeting to discuss some issues.

Arya too expressed similar views. “Why is the meeting being projected in a wrong light. It was a routine meeting.” The minister was surprised that a group of people were holding him responsible for the transfer of DM and SSP of Udham Singh Nagar. “These are baseless charges, why would I do so. The transfers were done in a routine manner,” added the minister.