Uttarakhand Elections 2017: Harish Rawat filing his nomination paper on Kichha seat.
In the season of rebellion in the Congress ranks in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Harish Rawat faced a peculiar situation as he filed nomination from the Kichcha Assembly constituency in Kumaon on Wednesday. A senior Congress leader, Shilpi Arora, resigned from the party with a tweet explaining why she was quitting and launching a ferocious attack on the Chief Minister.
"I was forced to leave party and left with no option except fighting against @harishrawatcmuk from Kichcha as Independent Candidate," Ms Arora, who has been with the Congress for over 20 years, tweeted. She alleges she was promised that the party would nominate her from one of the nine assembly constituencies in Udhum Singh Nagar and that she had even begun groundwork there. However, after her name did not feature in the list of Congress candidates she felt "betrayed by the false promises".
The 44-year-old entrepreneur-turned-politician has now vowed to "turn into Goddess Durga in order to defeat such demons," referring to Mr Rawat, who she described as "Mahishasura," a dreaded demon killed by the Goddess in mythology, for "backtracking on his commitment."
Shilpi Arora said she would file her nomination from Kichcha on Friday, the same day that Harish Rawat files nomination from the second seat he in contesting - Haridwar Rural in Garhwal.
Party insiders say Ms Arora, a state general secretary of the Congress, is from Gadarpur in Udhum Singh Nagar district and had been eyeing a ticket from the region for some time now. In place of her, the Congress fielded Rajendra Singh from Gadarpur.
As an Independent candidate from Kichcha, Ms Arora could use her popularity and sympathy wave to wrest a significant amount of vote-share from Rawat, leading to a tough competition, if not a loss of face for the Chief Minister. As an Independent, Ms Arora even stands a chance of joining ranks with any political party that may choose to solicit her support to form government in case she wins.
The BJP has reposed faith in its sitting lawmaker Rajesh Shukla, from Kichcha, to take on the Chief Minister. The saffron party hopes to capitalise on the wave of anti-incumbency against the current government to return to power in the state after five years.
Disgruntled Congress leaders across the state are either joining other parties or turning rebel as "Independent" candidates just before the assembly elections hitting the party's prospect of returning to power.
Sarika Pardhan, who was a minister in the ND Tiwari government of 2002 has also decided to fight the elections as an Independent candidate after the Congress fielded Godavari Thapli from Mussoorie. In all such instances, unhappy leaders have blamed the Chief Minister for their being denied ticket.
Reacting to Ms Arora's allegations, Surendra Kumar, the Chief Minister's media advisor, said, "Shilpi Arora is a long-time member of the party and a valued leader. She may have made the outburst in an emotional moment. But we are in talks with her and will resolve all her grievances".
Uttarakhand votes on February 15. Votes will be counted on March 11.