DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand BJP MLA Umesh Sharma Kau said on Saturday that he had spoken to state cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, who had announced his resignation on Friday evening, and that all issues had been sorted. However, a close aide to Rawat said the minister had lost trust in state BJP leaders, including the chief minister. “Rawat ji wants assurance form BJP high command… He will only listen to the leaders from Delhi,” he said. Terming it a “domestic matter”, CM Pushkar Singh Dhami said it would be resolved soon.
Interestingly, Kau himself was rumoured to have resigned from the party which the MLA denied saying that he is a ‘soldier’ of the BJP. Kau claimed that he had met Rawat at around 12.30 am on Saturday. Rawat had left a cabinet meeting on Friday evening and announced to resign. “Until budget for a medical college in Kotdwar is sanctioned by the state government, I am not going to budge. They say Rs 5 crore has been allocated for the medical college, but with that amount only the boundary of such an institution can be constructed,” the leader said.
However, no resignation letter has been received by the governor yet. Sources said cabinet ministers Subodh Uniyal and Dhan Singh Rawat visited his residence on Saturday, but had to return empty-handed after being told he was not present. Sources from the Congress claimed that Rawat was in Delhi on Friday and might join the party in presence of former chief minister Harish Rawat.