Harak Singh Rawat sacked as Uttarakhand minister, expelled from BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party. Pic/AFP

Amid speculation that he was likely to rejoin the Congress, Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat was on Sunday sacked from the government and expelled from the BJP for "anti-party activities" for six years.

BJP sources said that Rawat was asking for tickets for three of his family members including his wife in the assembly polls, but had been told that the party had made it a rule that only one member of a family would be fielded.

"He has been dropped from the Dhami cabinet and expelled from the party for six years," a source said. The development came barely a month before the Assembly election in the hill state, slated for February 14.

It is learnt that Rawat, present in the national capital, is likely to join Congress on Monday. "Rawat is in touch with the Congress leadership and is likely to join the party. His daughter-in-law may also join the party with him on Monday," sources said.

Rawat had switched over from the Congress to the BJP before the 2017 Assembly polls.

Rawat was said to be nursing a grouse against the BJP leadership for quite some time, and even expressing his resentment publicly.

He had skipped the party meeting to select candidates in Dehradun on Saturday. As he met a senior Congress leader on Sunday and indicated that he would join the party on Monday, the BJP took action against him.

Similarly, last month, Rawat had left a cabinet meeting and announced his resignation. He threatened to resign demanding a budget for a medical college in assembly constituency Kotdwar and said that Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for the medical college but with that fund,only the boundary can be constructed.

Two days later, after a dinner meeting between Dhami and Rawat, the Uttarakhand BJP had claimed the crisis created after the latter's threat to resign from the state cabinet had been resolved.

After the meeting, Rawat had said that Dhami is like his "younger brother" and they had a "long relationship."

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