JOIN US BJP president Amit Shah is expected to do a postmortem on Wednesday on the botched attempts to have its government in Uttarakhand after President’s Rule was imposed.
Harish Rawat returned to power after winning the Supreme Court-directed vote of confidence on May 10 which was seen as a major setback for the Narendra Modi government.
Party sources said Shah wants to meet Uttarakhand core group which comprises leaders from the state as well as joint secretary in-charge of the state, to assess what went wrong.
The significance of the timing of the meet is that it is to be held a day before the results of Assembly polls in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu where BJP apprehends mixed outcome.
Meanwhile, Congress chief whip Indira Hridayesh has filed a plea with Uttarakhand Speaker, requesting him to end membership of MLA Rekha Arya. Arya was the lone Congress legislator who supported the BJP during the confidence vote.
The BJP’s failure to occupy power in the hill state ahead of Assembly polls has led to rumblings within the party with questions being raised on master strategist Shah’s ability to pull off elections after the first round of wins in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. The party lost back-to-back polls in Delhi and Bihar last year.
The state leaders, said sources, are blaming the central leadership for “owing up the internal struggle” of the Congress giving an impression that the BJP was engineering defection to topple the Rawat government.
Instead, added sources, the BJP should have allowed intra-Congress differences to weaken Rawat as had happened during the time of his predecessor Vijay Bahuguna.