Harish Rawat’s mango parties run into opposition

A ‘Mango Party’ has followed a ‘Litchi Party’ and another to promote a local berry called ‘Kafal’ in the hills of Uttarakhand with accompaniments of maize, butter and milk. The host of each of these parties, former chief minister Harish Rawat, ostensibly hoped to promote local fruits and less known products.

He had tried to do so while he was the chief minister of the state. But after suffering a humiliating defeat in the last Assembly election to the BJP, the parties are seen by some as efforts by the former chief minister to re-invent himself and also keep the Congress relevant.

The fruity parties were attended not only by Congress workers but also by opposition leaders and people from different walks of life. His detractors however see in Rawat’s hospitality an attempt by a politician to portray himself as a champion of people on Garhwal and Kumaon hills.

Former state Congress chief Kishore Upadhyaya, however, is not amused. Upadhyaya, who was at one time a close lieutenant of Rawat, indignantly asks, “What is there to celebrate? After our humiliating defeat, I did not even celebrate my daughter’s birthday.”

Upadhyaya has been smarting following what he sees as deliberate attempts to humiliate him. His removal as the PCC chief following the electoral debacle was followed by nobody inviting him to meet the opposition’s Presidential candidate Meira Kumar when she visited Dehradun earlier this week.

“If the Congress party could be revived by insulting me, so be it; I am ready,” he said, questioning whether ‘mango parties’ could help revive the Congress after its crushing defeat.

Pritam Singh, the Uttarakhand Congress Chief, however has come out in Harish Rawat’s defence. “We cannot sit at home and sulk after the electoral defeat but we have to engage in political activity to highlight the failure of state and central governments,” he said, adding that the former chief minister had done the right thing by organising different events to boost the morale of party workers.

Asked about the usefulness of holding such parties, Surendra Aggarwal a close aide of Harish Rawat, clarified that even as Chief Minister Harish Rawat had made efforts to give impetus to local farm products and revive hill farming for economic growth of the hilly areas. “These parties are part of his continued efforts to work on his agenda as an opposition leader,” he said.

Congress in Uttarakhand is widely perceived to be faction-ridden with groups owing allegiance to former CM Harish Rawat, present PCC Chief Pritam Singh, former PCC Chief Kishore Upadhaya and the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Indira Hridayesh.