Who is BJP’s CM face in Uttarakhand ?, asks Manish Tewari

Dehradun: The “conspicuous” absence of BJP’s chief ministerial face in

Uttarakhand

was on Tuesday raked up by the ruling Congress, which alleged that the brass of the saffron party was rushing to the hill state just before the polls as they had no faith in the party’s local leadership.

“The way the top BJP leaders have made a beeline to the Himalayan state, it appears that either Narendra Modi or Amit Shah are aiming to become the chief minister,” former Union minister and senior Congress leader

Manish Tewari

quipped.

“The BJP did not trust its Uttarakhand leaders. So a battery of its national leaders are being rushed to the state to fillip the party campaign," he said.

In the past few weeks, almost entire BJP brass, including Modi, Shah and Rajnath Singh, have come to Uttarakhand to campaign for the party and its candidates.

“They are neither willing to disclose the chief ministerial face nor do they have any development plan. Therefore, the national leaders are the only hope for the party to help it come to power. However, the party has forgotten that the state leaders will run the government and not the national leaders,” said the Congress leader.

The strategy had backfired on BJP in Bihar and a similar fate awaits the party in Uttarakhand also, Tewari claimed.

He said that in Congress the situation is just opposite. "The state leaders are running the show," he said.

“Our seniors are scheduled to come to Uttarakhand, but our state leaders are heading the campaign and we trust them and are confident that we will retain the state,” he said.

Tewari also said that the “step-motherly” treatment meted out to Uttarakhand by the BJP-led NDA government would help Congress in its campaign.

“First the budgets were slashed. And when all the efforts failed a futile attempt was made to topple a democratically-elected government,” said Tewari.