After Congress, now BJP axes rebels in Uttarakhand

A day after Congress expelled 11 leaders on the charge of anti-party activities, BJP is expected to follow suit. “We are identifying more rebels and also all those party leaders who are working against the interests of the BJP in the state. Like Congress, we will follow hot pursuit policy against them,” said Satish Lakhera, a BJP spokesman. Congress has so far expelled as many as 32 rebellious leaders which include Jot Singh Bist and Mantri Prasad Naithani, who are the prominent faces in the state. “All these 32 leaders are contesting elections as rebel candidates from different seats in the state,” said Surendra Kumar, a state Congress spokesman. [caption id=“attachment_188830” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“PTI”]  [/caption] After failing to stem the revolt, both the ruling BJP and Congress in Uttarakhand have started the process of expelling rebellious leaders. The two parties have had their share of post-ticket distribution revolts in over 20-22 each out of the total 70 constituencies. The BJP has so far expelled nearly 22 leaders, including four sitting MLAs Kedar Singh Fonia, Raj Kumar, GL Shah and Anil Nautiyal. The ruling party, which fielded nearly 36 new faces, created a political storm by axing nearly 12 of the total 36 sitting MLAs from the poll race in the face of the anti-incumbency. These also include two cabinet ministers – Khajan Das and Govind Singh Bist, who appeared to have now fallen in line after showing discontent. The saffron party is also facing severe crisis in Chamoli district where all the three seats are being contested by rebel candidates. From Badrinath, former minister Fonia is fighting election as a rebel candidate. Similarly, on other two seats – Tharali and Karanprayag, party rebels GL Shah and Anil Nautiyal, both loyalists of Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, have created a problem for the ruling party. On the other hand, Congress did not deny tickets to any of its sitting MLAs to avoid any rebellion and yet facing severe rebellion. Congress which is divided in three major camps belonging to its leaders like Harish Rawat, Vijay Bahuguna and Satpal Maharaj, has denied tickets to many of their loyalists, who in turn are playing spoilsport in other camps. For example, Jot Singh Bist, a Harish Rawat loyalist, is fighting independently against Manmohan Mall, who is a staunch supporter of Bahuguna. Former minister Mantri Prasad Naithani, a Maharaj loyalist, is contesting from Devprayag against official candidate Shurvir Sajwan. Former tourism minister TPS Rawat, who quit BJP last year to float Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha, has already fielded some of the disgruntled leaders from both BJP and Congress. PTI