Congress MP Satpal Maharaj says he is “deeply hurt”, refuses to contest polls

DEHRADUN: Satpal Maharaj, sitting MP from the Pauri-Garwhal seat, announced on Thursday that he will not be contesting the Lok Sabha elections.The veteran leader, who has won the seat twice - in 1996, as a candidate of the All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) and in 2009, as a Congress nominee - said that he had taken the decision because he was "deeply hurt" by the ignorance of his constituency by chief minister Harish Rawat. The MP claimed that Rawat had written a letter to the party high command in which he had claimed that Congress will win three seats in Uttarakhand - Almora, Nainital and Haridwar. "Why doesn't the CM also claim the responsibility for the Tehri and Pauri seats?" Maharaj said in a statement. He also claimed that both the constituencies had been neglected for a long time. "The condition of roads, electricity, water, health and education is pathetic in these areas. Party workers have also not been facilitated for the work they have done here," he said.

According to party insiders, the differences between Rawat and Maharaj had been simmering for a while and came to the fore after the CM announced the portfolios of the state cabinet recently. Sources say that Maharaj was miffed because his wife Amrita, who is a part of the council of ministers, was denied the key horticulture portfolio.