New Delhi:Even as 45-year-old Pushkar Singh Dhami was appointed Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister on Saturday, political murmurs that the Uttarakhand ‘constitutional crisis’ may be a harbinger of a similar development in West Bengal found articulation in a press conference in the national capital on Saturday that was addressed by top Congress leaders from Uttarakhand.
Dhami is the third BJP CM—after Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat—since the state elections in the Himalayan state in 2017.
“The target here is Mamata Banerjee. Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not tolerate the way she challenged him and won the West Bengal Assembly polls, belying all their expectations,” alleged Karan Mahra, deputy leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly.
Besides Mahra, the press meet was addressed by former CM Harish Rawat, AICC state-in-charge Devender Yadav, and state Congress chief Pritam Singh.
READ:Will Mamata Banerjee face the same fate of Rawat?
Crisis in Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand’s ‘crisis’ lay in the developments that led to the resignation of CM Tirath Singh Rawat who put in his papers on Friday after leading the state for a mere 116 days from March 10, 2021.
A Lok Sabha MP from Garhwal, Rawat was to be elected from a state assembly seat within six months of his being sworn in as the CM or before September 10.
But that was not to be as the Representation of the People Act stipulates that no bye-elections can be held for any seat in a state where the state assembly elections are to be held in less than a year.
Uttarakhand goes to the state polls in the first half of 2022.
Rawat’s short tenure was marked by the holding of the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar—amid a raging pandemic—which had negative fallout on his government. It was followed by the unravelling of a scandal where Covid infection results of pilgrims were faked.
This was besides the controversy that some of his statements stirred up—from his comments on women wearing ripped jeans to his historical blunder where he said the US “enslaved” India for “200 years”.
READ:Dhami to take oath as 11th CM of Uttarakhand on Sunday
Implications on Mamata
West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee’s position is somewhat similar to Rawat.
Having lost to BJP’s candidate and TMC rebel Suvendu Adhikari by a mere 1,956 votes from West Bengal’s Nandigram constituency in the state assembly polls in April 2021, Mamata was sworn in as the state’s CM on May 5.
According to the rule book, she has to win an assembly seat before six months have elapsed or by November 5, 2021.
The big difference with the Uttarakhand issue is that the next West Bengal elections are due after five years. Therefore, the Election Commission may be duty-bound to hold the bye-elections.
What may stand in Mamata’s favour is that she approached the Calcutta high court challenging Adhikari’s victory with the court had reserved its judgment in the matter.
Last week, the West Bengal government had already approached the Election Commission requesting it to hold the bye-elections as early as possible.
Technically, in case the Election Commission chose not to hold the bye-elections, Mamata may also take recourse to appoint someone else as the Chief Minister of the state.
