New Delhi: Days after making a veiled attack on the Congress leadership ahead of the assembly polls in Uttarakhand, the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Saturday said that some "course correction" in the party was important to win the upcoming elections.
"Some course correction is important to win upcoming elections. AICC is the supreme command. The state in charge is the coach. The role of playing captain is very important. There should be coordination of confidence among these three. If played for cross-purpose, then we will lose the match. Sometimes expressing pain is also beneficial for the party," he said while speaking to ANI.
The party however is still tight-lipped over who will be its Chief Minister candidate.
By declaring the senior leader as the Head of the campaign committee, the party has managed to avert a major crisis in the poll-bound state.
The Grand Old Party arrived at this decision after Rahul Gandhi convened a meeting with Uttarakhand leaders, a day after Rawat expressed his anguish over the upcoming election on Twitter.
In fact, the senior leader's tweets made the Congress high command prepone its scheduled meeting with the Uttrakhand leaders.
Harish Rawat, UKCC President Ganesh Godiyal, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pritam Singh, party leader Yashpal Arya, and AICC Organisation secretary KC Venugopal, and others attended the meeting Gandhi held at his residence in New Delhi.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi also spoke to Rawat over the phone to listen to his grievances and to take him into confidence about the party's support.
Party reaches out to senior leader
The party's top brass reached out to the party's prominent face in poll-bound Uttarakhand, a day after he gave a cryptic "warning" to the party high command through a series of tweets.
In one of his tweets, the former chief minister said, "Isn't it strange, one has to swim in the sea in the form of the forthcoming electoral battle, instead of cooperation, the organisational structure at most places is turning its face away or is playing a negative role."
He further added, "I have been thinking... Harish Rawat, it's gone too far, you have done enough, it is time to rest. Then there is a voice in the head that quietly says I am neither weak nor will run from challenges. I am in turmoil. Hope the New Year shows me the way."
Meanwhile, a party worker said, "Harish Rawatji ko bola gya hai ki sarkaar banao aur sarkaar chalao" (Harish Rawat has been told to form the government and run the government)."
Top leaders slam Rawat's pressure tactics
However, a section of Congress leaders has attacked Rawat over his tweets by claiming it as "pressure tactics" upon the party high command. The first attack came from Congress MP Manish Tewari, who used a Punjabi idiom that meant only the last rites need to be completed now after Rawat 'mishandled' Assam and Punjab as the All India Congress Committee in-charge.
"FIRST ASSAM THEN PUNJAB NOW UTTRAKHAND….. BHOG POORA HI PAUN GAYE KASAR NA RAHE JAWE KOI," Tewari tweeted.
Another Congress MP Ravneet Bittu also launched an attack on Rawat, saying, "The thing, which he used to teach us (Punjab Congress leaders) that we should speak to the party first rather than media, but he is practising the same in his case. Now it is time for the principal to become the student again."
Also read: Harish Rawat's advisor clears dust over Rawat's cryptic tweets
