My fight is within the Congress: Harish Rawat

New Delhi: The newly elected Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Vijay Bahuguna slammed Congress 'rebels' on Tuesday for challenging party President Sonia Gandhi's authority. Harish Rawat, the Congress' other chief ministerial candidate and veteran leader, had boycotted the swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday. On the brink of a major split within the state unit, Rawat sent in his resignation to Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday morning and followed it up with a meeting with his arch-rival Harak Singh Rawat, and BJP President Nitin Gadkari.

Bahuguna said, "The Congress party has its own values, its own traditions and the Congress goes by the concept of delivering justice within the party. There is democracy within the party. Our observers have consulted all the MLAs, all the MPs and they have passed a unanimous resolution authorising Mrs Gandhi to nominate the leader."

He added, "Once you have given that power of authority to the Congress president to nominate then it is not like you can say 'I don't agree with this'. It is absolutely undemocratic, unheard of in parliamentary democracy."

Bahuguna was sworn in as the Chief Minister in a dramatic turn of events.

On Monday night, Congress high command declared Bahuguna as the CM. By Tuesday morning, Rawat sent in his resignation to Sonia.

Bahuguna said, "Harish Rawat is a very senior leader of the party. I am sure Rawat will not join the BJP."

However, by afternoon, Sonia called a meeting of the top leaders, including Bahuguna and Rawat. Post meeting, a decision was taken to defer the swearing-in to buy more time to placate the latter.

However, in an hour's time, Sonia, reportedly upset over the defiance of Rawat, and seeing him joining hands with arch rival Harak Singh Rawat, asked for the installation of Bahuguna as CM.

Rawat and his supporters boycotted the ceremony. With a wafer thin majority in the state, the durability of the new government remains uncertain.

The Congress, however, continues to deny reports of a split within the party.

"All this is wrong that Rawat is meeting the BJP president," said Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand.

While in the end, Rawat did give in, he did not do so before making his discontent clear.

He said, "I have proved the point that I have the MLAs with me. I have proved that I have more than 6 MLAs, as was being said by Virender Singh. My fight is within the Congress umbrella."

He added, "I am not a rebel."