DEHRADUN: Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s recent statement that some people within the BJP were working “against him” has not only exposed the fault lines within the ruling dispensation, but also reaffirmed the old adage that opposition parties never dented the CM’s chair in Uttarakhand as it was always rocked by the “insiders”. Rawat’s statement has also brought to fore the challenges faced by all the previous chief ministers of the state from within.Political analysts and experts opine that if one takes a look at the 18-year-old history of the Himalayan state, all the chief ministers of Uttarakhand had to face more trouble from their own party members than the outsiders.The tenure of CMs including Nityanand Swami, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, ND Tiwari, BC Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Vijay Bahuguna Harish Rawat have remained turbulent. Even with the backing of 57 MLAs, present chief minister Rawat is not finding himself in a comfortable position and there have been a string of verbal attacks on him by his own party’s lawmakers.Former journalist and political expert Jay Singh Rawat told TOI, “The controversy started from Nityanand Swami, the first CM who was termed as outsider and had to resign in 2001. Three senior BJP legislators did not attend the first swearing in ceremony of the state.”The first elected government was of Congress in 2002, and its veteran N D Tiwari was made the CM.“The move did not go down well with Harish Rawat, the then state chief of Congress. Due to the political uncertainty as Congress had wafer-thin majority with 36 MLAs in 70-member House, Tiwari had to request BSP for the support of its seven lawmakers to get budget passed,” said Jay Singh.He did not fail to mention that Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh had recently said that Harish Rawat had tried to bring down the Tiwari government.BJP has seen it the most.“Out of the 35 BJP MLAs in 2007, only four to five were in favour of Khanduri, while majority wanted Koshiyari as CM. As a result, the internal bickering continued and Khanduri was replaced by Ramesh Pokhiryal Nishank in 2009. Barely few months before the 2012 polls, Khanduri was again made the CM,” said the political expert.During the oath taking ceremony in 2012, 24 Congress MLAs did not attend the function as they were in favour of Harish Rawat. “During the two year tenure of Vijay Bahuguna, a number of complaints were made against him to the national leadership by Harish Rawat camp. The biggest political coup was seen in the tenure of Harish Rawat when 10 Congress MLAs went against the party in 2016,” he said, adding that the trend has continued in the Trivendra Rawat government“Now Trivendra with a brute majority of 57 MLAs and blessings of the central leadership is also not finding the going smooth as his own party leaders have targeted him on several occasions. Following which, he has no other option left than to distribute positions in various boards and corporations to party leaders and legislators,” said Jay.He did not shy from mentioning that political parties had “repeatedly failed people of Uttarakhand.” Jay added, “History repeats itself and over the years both BJP and Congress have witnessed repeated scenes of strife within party. At the end of the day, they are hurting their future prospects.”Another political expert Udit Ghildiyal was quick to mention, “In Uttarakhand, an opposition party has never dented a chief minister’s chair. A CM has always faced maximum threat from inside his own party.”On being asked about the reasons, he claimed that politicians thought that it was “very easy to become a CM in a small state and therefore the interest of people was put in the backburner. Rather than strengthening the party, such leaders are weakening its root.”

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