Harish Rawat, Congress leader and former chief minister of Uttarakhand, has reacted to a video of Harak Singh Rawat, who quit the Congress to move to BJP. Even though Harish Rawat has said he is personally not inclined to accept those who helped topple the party’s government in 2017, the final decision lies with the high command of the party. Harak Singh Rawat was recently a BJP MLA from Kotdwar but was expelled from the party on Saturday for “indiscipline”

A video of Harak Singh Rawat crying , saying that he was feeling ‘suffocated’ in the BJP, among other complaints. There had been high tensions between him and the party eadership in the state, and a meeting was convened in Delhi with party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah present, wherein it was decided to expel him from the party.

 Among the issues were displeasure among ground-level party workers upset with the perceived ‘preference’ being given to him and leaders that defected from the Congress. He was also pressurizing the party leadership to give a ticket from Landsdowne for his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gosain.

Now that Harak Singh Rawat is saying he wants to “selflessly serve the Congress party”, Harish Singh Rawat has said that as of now he is not part of the Congress. However, Congress state president Ganesh Godiyal has admitted that he will be useful to the party in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

In other news, the Congress’ women’s wing president from the state Sunita Arya has quit the party and has joined the BJP after she did not secure the party’s ticket from Nainital.