Dehradun: It has been unusually cold winter in Uttarakhand this year. Capital Dehradoon's tony Rajpur Road received snowfall after sixty years as political parties were warming up to electoral battle in this hill state.
There is rebellion in all major political outfits; and regional players are lapping up the discarded with both their hands. BJP has denied tickets to nearly a dozen MLAs including some cabinet ministers. Disgruntled elements in congress are preparing to play the spoil sport. The effort since, by both the parties, has been to minimise the damage being inflicted by their own.
A day before the congress declared its final list of candidates; party's in-charge for the state Chowdhery Birender Singh was rushed to the capital D'doon on a secret mission. Accompanying him was party MP from Pauri Satpal Maharaj.
Their brief was specific and precise. Assess the T-factor and neutralise it then and there.
For his age,Narain Dutta Tiwari, the octogenarian leader for all his vitality should have attained a state of political ennui by now. To the surprise of many considered close to him, Tiwari since his return from Hyderabad Raj Bhawan is showing no signs of boredom. His political acceptability both within and outside has grown further; they claim.
BJP leaders including CM B C Khanduri has dropped in a couple of times to seek blessings from the congress stalwart recently. Tiwari has in the last one year even shared dais with BJP leadership of the state.
Congress' assessment of the situation it seems was quite clear: Tiwari may not be in a position to get votes; but has enough left in him to quietly trigger multiple hemorrhages from within especially in the Kumaun region of the state.
Little is known what transpired in that meeting between Birendra Singh and N D Tiwari. The next day congress nominated four more candidates to contest on the party ticket. The list had an unmistakable stamp of N D Tiwari. His nephew, his OSD of many years and another of his close associate were allocated the 'haath ka panja' symbol.
Within hours of this announcement, N D Tiwari released a statement recalling his association with the congress since the Nehru era.
Didn't someone say that in India politicians never retire?
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