By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
In the desperate attempt to foist its own person in the seat of the Nainital zila panchayat chairperson, the BJP government in Uttarakhand has stirred up a real hornet’s nest.
In the past two days, the government has been facing flak from the High Court and the opposition in the Vidhan Sabha in Gairsain on one issue — the election of the Nainital zila panchayat chairperson, a post won by the ruling party’s candidate Deepa Darmwal by just one vote.
After being cornered, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami put up a brave front and hit back on Congress saying the opposition is resorting to vote-theft tactics on all those places where it faces defeat. “They won in Dehradun (zila panchayat) but there were no such allegations,” Dhami said.
In Gairsain, as soon as the House assembled on Tuesday on the first day of the monsoon session, the Congress members rushed to the well during the zero hour raising slogans against the BJP government for its alleged manipulation in the recently concluded Nainital zila panchayat election. The Congress members led by the leader of the opposition Yashpal Arya said the government was trying to gag the opposition by not allowing to raise the issue.
Speaker Ritu Khanduri later adjourned the House as the ruckus over the Nainital zila Panchayat election continued. Later, the Congress members staged a dharna in the well of the House raising slogans against the Dhami government.
The government also faced stinging criticism in the High Court in Nainital with a division bench comprising Chief Justice Guhanathan Narendra and Justice Alok Mehra suggesting to the government to transfer SSP Nainital Prahalad Meena for his alleged failure to control the law and order situation.
Taking cognisance of an incident where five zila panchayat members were allegedly abducted to keep them away from taking part in the election for chairperson, the High Court said the SSP Meena had failed miserably. The High Court asked many questions which could not be answered satisfactorily by the government counsels and SSP Meena.
After the High Court’s strong rebuke, the government is under pressure now to transfer Meena from Nainital, official sources said.
Meanwhile former chief minister Harish Rawat has slammed the government saying a criminal act has been committed in the Panchayat elections in Nainital and said he would undertake a state-wide yatra to expose BJP government.