Uttarakhand minister Amrita Rawat, wife of Satpal Maharaj who recently left Congress to join BJP, was today sacked by Chief Minister Harish Rawat from the state Cabinet and an Independent MLA was sworn in as minister.
The development came as trouble brewed in the ruling Congress with a section of leaders questioning her loyalty
after the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle. However, a defiant Amrita hit back, saying it was the Chief Minister who should go taking moral responsibility for the defeat.
Governor Aziz Qureshi accepted the recommendation by Chief Minister Harish Rawat for Amrita’s removal, Chief
Secretary Subhash Kumar said. Amrita Rawat was the Tourism Minister and also held other portfolios like Culture and Women’s Empowerment, among others. The portfolios held by her will remain with the chief minister till he decides to allocate them to someone else, Kumar said.
According to the CM’s close aides, Amrita had been asked to step down soon after Congress lost all five Lok Sabha seats
in Uttarakhand. However, as she did not step down on her own, she was sacked, they said.
Independent MLA from Tehri Dinesh Dhanai was sworn in as a Cabinet minister hours after Amrita’s expulsion. Cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, a Harish Rawat loyalist who lost to BJP’s B C Khanduri from Pauri-Garhwal seat, had recently demanded Amrita’s resignation accusing her of not campaigning for him wholeheartedly.
Soon after Amrita received the message about her removal, she launched a bitter tirade against the chief minister,
saying it was he who should have resigned on moral grounds following the party’s rout in the state.
Citing the example of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who has offered to resign after Congress’ defeat in the
northeastern state, she said, “Instead of resigning himself, he has expelled a woman member from the Cabinet.
“People of Uttarakhand would never forgive him for what he has done. It proves there is no morality left in him,” she
said.
Though Amrita has been removed from the state Cabinet, she remains a Congress member in the House and so the
development will not affect the party’s numerical strength in the state Assembly.
In the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly, Congress has 33 MLAs and survives with the support of Progressive Democratic
Front (an alliance of various parties, including BSP, UKD and Independents). PTI