![[File] Former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat | PTI](https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/news/india/images/2019/10/23/harish-rawat-pti.jpg.image.340.191.jpg "[File] Former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat | PTI")
Two days after he appeared to signal disenchantment with the Congress on Twitter, Harish Rawat is scheduled to meet the party's high command in Delhi on Friday.
Harish Rawat, a former chief minister of Uttarakhand and trouble-shooter for the party in Punjab, had hinted on Wednesday he could quit politics.
The meeting in Delhi was scheduled before the controversial tweets were posted. ANI reported “Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pritam Singh, Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal and party leader Yashpal Arya will accompany Rawat to Delhi.”
Pritam Singh told ANI the Congress Uttarakhand unit would follow the instructions of the party high command and affirmed there was “no dispute in the party”.
The Hindu reported the leaders from Uttarakhand would meet Rahul Gandhi to discuss preparations for the assembly polls. The publication claimed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had spoken to Harish Rawat after he posted the tweets.
The Times of India reported early on Friday that sources claimed, “Rawat will either be announced as the party’s CM face for Uttarakhand after the meeting or be given more power to lead the election campaign”.
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Godiyal also told The Times of India that the party leaders attending the Friday meeting would press for Harish Rawat to be made the chief ministerial face. “A number of senior leaders of Uttarakhand Congress, including a majority of the party’s MLAs and Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta, rallied behind Harish Rawat, pressing for him to be declared the CM face of the party ahead of the polls,” The Times of India reported.
Harish Rawat's outburst was, reportedly, fuelled by factional rivalry in the run-up to the polls.
“What is happening in the state is that the Pritam Singh camp has won over Devendra Yadav, Uttarakhand in-charge of the Congress. Neither Pritam nor Yadav wants Rawat as the CM. Nor would they like to see any role for him in ticket distribution. He is being cautiously side-lined,” political analyst Jai Singh Rawat told The New Indian Express.
