UKD again a divided party

SMA Kazmi

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 17

The unity efforts of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), which played an important role in the formation of a separate state of Uttarakhand, have fallen flat.

The initiative by senior party leaders to bring together all five factions before the 2017 Assembly elections has failed to bring about the desired results. The unity shown by senior leaders in the past one month was sabotaged due to their inflated egos.

The factions led by Kashi Singh Airy, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Diwakar Bhatt had decided to end their differences to come on one platform. However, the appointment of district party leaders by two factions led by Airy and Panwar and subsequent bickering led to the parting of ways.

The Airy-led faction refrained from attending the unity meetings, which brought together two rivals, Trivendra Singh Panwar and Diwakar Bhatt. On the other hand, Airy went ahead with holding a convention of his faction in Dehradun, which was boycotted by other factions. The convention appointed Pushpesh Tripathi, a former UKD MLA, as party president, which did not go well with the other two factions.

The groups led by Panwar and Bhatt criticised Airy for playing the spoilsport and unilaterally holding the convention of the party and appointing a president without taking other factions into confidence. Since both Airy and Pushpesh Tripathi belong to the Kumaon region, there were allegations that the party has been hijacked by Kumaoni leaders, sidelining the leaders from the Garhwal region. However, the Airy faction refuted the allegations and claimed that Panwar was not interested in unity.

The happenings in the party in the past week indicate that there are no chances of the unity of the UKD factions, which would gladden the two mainstream political parties, the Congress and the BJP, in the run-up to the next Assembly poll.

The UKD, which spearheaded the movement for a separate state of Uttarakhand, has utterly failed to gain the confidence of the people of the state.

In the first Assembly elections in February 2002, the UKD had won four Assembly seats out of a total of 70 seats. The number reduced to three in the 2007 Assembly poll.

The faction led by Diwakar Bhatt extended support to the BJP-led government and Bhatt become a Cabinet minister in the BJP-led state government. As infighting intensified, the party performed miserably in the 2012 Assembly poll and could win only one seat.

However, the lone UKD legislator, Pritam Singh Panwar, also extended support to the Congress-led government and become a minister in the state government. Interestingly, Pritam Singh Panwar has been keeping himself aloof from the factional fight prevailing in the party.

The situation in the party has demoralised workers and sympathisers, who wanted to see the regional forces strong so that their issues could be brought to the fore.