Many Want To Join Congress Due To "Instability In BJP": Harish Rawat

Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Harish Rawat today claimed that several people want to join the Congress due to instability in the Uttarakhand Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mr Rawat said that the party (Congress) will only take those who they deem worthy.

"Those who had left the party want to come back, and many from BJP also want to join Congress. There is a situation of instability in BJP. Many people (want to join Congress)... can't take so many, but those who are worthy, we will take them," he said.

Mr Rawat also informed that Congress will begin distributing party tickets for the Uttarakhand polls in 2022 from December, and also hinted at the possibility of the party's first candidate list for the polls in December itself.

Slamming the BJP-government in the state for taking credit for the reconstruction work of Kedarnath that began during his tenure, Mr Rawat said all the works began there during his tenure but now BJP was taking credit for those works.

Rawat had also slammed Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for not taking preventive measures despite Union Home Minister Amit Shah inquiring about the preparedness of the state to deal with incessant rains.

"I am grateful to Amit Shah who asked the state government to take precautionary steps in view of the heavy rain alert issued 36 hours before," he mocked.

Polls for the 70 member Uttarakhand Assembly are scheduled to take place in early 2022.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)