Meet Uttarakhand’s Harak Singh Rawat, man with tantrums and ceaseless ambition

Lord Krishna forgave his cousin Shishupala’s 100 mistakes, warned him, and then pulled out the Sudarshan Chakra. This appears to be an apt parallel to how the BJP ran out of patience with its minister Harak Singh Rawat’s tantrums in Uttarakhand and sacked him on Sunday night, anticipating his return to the Congress.

This was the culmination of a nearly month-long drama in Dehradun in which Harak kept throwing his weight around and sulking despite attempts from the top to appease him. After threatening to resign, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met with him over lunch to agree to his demand for a medical college in his constituency of Kotdwar.

Harak was a prominent figure on the stage during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech.

Harak’s dream of becoming the BJP’s Chief Minister of Uttarakhand seemed a long way off. When the BJP ousted his nemesis Trivendra Singh Rawat as Chief Minister last year, the ambitious politician saw an opportunity.

But Harak was not chosen, not even the second time when a much-younger leader in Pushkar Dhami was appointed as chief minister. It made it clear to Harak that the BJP would always choose a “true-blood” leader from within its ranks as CM, rather than an outsider like Harak.

In fact, Harak has spent time in all parties over the last 32 years of his political career, beginning with the BJP in 1989, moving on to the BSP in 1996, the Congress in 1998, the BJP again in 2016, and now possibly the Congress.

Updated by Deveshi Gupta