Uttarakhand Congress Official Quits Over Ticket To Harish Rawat’s Son

In yet another setback for the Congress in Uttarakhand ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the party’s general secretary and Seva Dal’s state chief Rajesh Rastogi resigned from all posts today, saying dynastic politics is “finishing” the party.

Mr Rastogi, an advocate and a grassroots leader, lashed out at former Chief Minister Harish Rawat for “getting” a ticket for his son from the Haridwar seat.

In his resignation letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party’s state chief Karan Mahara, and the party’s in-charge for the state, Kumari Selja, Mr Rastogi said the “growing dominance of dynastic politics is finishing the party”.

Accusing the Congress leaders of the state of promoting factionalism and selling tickets, he said if these are not controlled then Congress will not be able to sit even in the opposition.

If an honest leader with a clean image like Pritam Singh had been declared the chief ministerial face in the 2017 assembly elections, Congress would have been in power in the state today, he claimed.

“Congress may have cancelled my ticket from the Laksar assembly constituency in 2022. But I still stood firmly with the party,” he said.

Harish Rawat got a ticket for his son from Haridwar while the requests of senior leaders who wanted to contest from there were ignored, he alleged.

“Many other big Congress leaders, upset with Harish Rawat’s promotion of dynastic politics in Haridwar seat, may resign from the party within a day or two,” he claimed.

Uttarakhand Congress has seen an exodus in recent months with sitting legislator from Badrinath Rajendra Singh Bhandari and many former MLAs leaving the party.