Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat undertook a thanksgiving and public outreach yatra on Monday, after which the Congress issued a stern warning to him that individual campaigns would not be tolerated.
RahulGandhi ji’s leadership, with the singular aim of ensuring the party’s victory,” Venugopal said on Monday about his meeting with Rawat the day before. Rawat met Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal in Delhi a day before launching the yatra. He is set to meet the party’s state in-charge, Kumari Selja, in the next few days to present his perspective. “Met with Uttarakhand Ex-CM Sh. Harish Rawat ji, to discuss on the ongoing campaigns in the election-going state. It was made clear that our campaigns will be taken forward jointly along with all Uttarakhand leaders, solely under the Congress banner under Hon’ble Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge ji and LOP Sh. Selja, the Congress in-charge for Uttarakhand, had written to Rawat asking him to halt the yatra. He was accompanied by former state Congress president, Chakrata MLA and Uttarakhand election campaign committee chairman Pritam Singh, Jaspur MLA Aadesh Chauhan and numerous other leaders and party workers.
Despite instructions from the Congress high command not to organise “parallel events” within the party, Rawat undertook the “Dhanyavad evam Jansamvad Yatra (Thanksgiving and Public Dialogue March)” on Monday, starting from Jaspur in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district.
She had maintained that any parallel programme just months before the election would not be in the party’s interest.
