Dehradun: Congress leader and Union Minister of State, Parliamentary Affairs, Harish Rawat is a strong contender to become the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand with sources saying that a MLA being made the Chief Minister is not necessary. Sources say the Congress legislature party will meet in Dehradun on Wednesday evening and request party president Sonia Gandhi to declare the chief ministerial candidate.
Sources said that talks were on with the Independent MLAs, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to support the Congress. The Congress with 32 seats has emerged as the single largest party in the state with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming in a close second with 31 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly.
Congress leaders claim that most of the Independent MLAs have an old association with the party and so they would extent their support to the party. The party expects to get the support of one Uttarakhand Kranti Dal MLA and three independents. The Congress could also join hands with three independents and three BSP MLAs to get te support of 38 legislators.
"We have the numbers. We will form the government. Three independents have pledged support. We are talking with others too. Our number will touch 38. We will form the government after Holi," said Uttarakhand Congress chief Yashpal Arya.
Meanwhile, Congress in-charge of Uttarakhand, Birender Singh, is in Dehradun to discuss the next course of action with the state leaders.
The BJP, on the other hand, has said that the single largest principle should not apply in the present situation and the party which can muster numbers should be called. The BJP also called a legislature party meeting in this regard.
Earlier, BJP leader Bhagat Singh Koshiyari met BC Khanduri, following which he said, "BJP will form the government in Uttarakhand. No one has a clear majority but we will form the government."
The kingmaker in the state could be the three BSP MLAs. Will they actually extract their pound of flesh or will they decide who will form the next government here is the big question which needs to be answered.
BJP leader Ramesh Pokhariyal said, "There is a possibility that we (BJP) too could stake claim to form government in Uttarakhand today. We will decide on this. We expected we would win with a huge margin. Something must have gone wrong."
BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar will meet legislative party members on Wednesday to discuss their plan of action to stake claim to form the government in the state.
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