BJP's 10 years have betrayed Uttarakhand, says Kharge as Congress reviews poll plans

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Monday that the BJP’s “double-engine” government in Uttarakhand had “betrayed the hopes and aspirations of the state’s people”, as the party sat down in Delhi to plan for next year’s Assembly election.

Kharge chaired a review of election preparations at his residence, 10 Rajaji Marg. Rahul Gandhi, organisation general secretary K C Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Uttarakhand Kumari Selja and Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal were among those present.

‘Arrogance of power’

In a post on X after the meeting, Kharge listed what he called the reasons people had turned against the government in its ten years in power. “A collapsed law-and-order system, serious questions over women’s safety, the arrogance of power,” he wrote.

People were demanding accountability and wanted change, he said, and the Congress would fight “from the streets to the legislature”. The party’s aim, he said, was to give “Devbhoomi Uttarakhand a secure, sensitive, and accountable government that places public welfare above all.”

Venugopal names the Ankita Bhandari case

Venugopal said in a separate post that young people and women in the state faced “severe injustice”, pointing to leaked exam papers and what he called “a mockery of justice in the Ankita Bhandari case”.

He said voters would “unseat the BJP” in 2027 and give the Congress a majority in both Uttarakhand and Manipur, where elections are due early next year.

The meeting came a day after the INDIA bloc’s rally at Ramlila Maidan, where Kharge and Rahul Gandhi led the opposition’s charge of “vote chori” against the BJP and the Election Commission.