Gairsain will be permanent capital if Congress returns in 2027: Harish Rawat

Former chief minister of Uttarakhand and Congress veteran Harish Rawat, for the first time, categorically stated that hill town Gairsain will be the permanent capital of the state if his party returns to power in 2027. Uttarakhand has no permanent capital even after 25 years of the state’s formation.

Harish Rawat made his party’s stand clear in one of the social media posts on Sunday. ” As many people are saying that Harish Rawat had the chance, he could have made Gairsain the capital. I am telling all these people that in 2027, you give Congress the chance, and I will ensure Gairsain becomes the capital.”

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”Ground for Infrastructural development in Gairsain was created by us. Our government laid the foundation stone for the Legislative Assembly building in Bhararisain. We also started construction of a government residential complex with a capacity of 5,000 people,” said Rawat in his social media post.

The Congress leader said it was his government that showed the way how Gairsain would be commissioned as the state capital, and the first assembly session in Gairsain was held in his tenure. Rawat added that his government developed the accommodation capacity of more than 2500 people in the hill town of Gairsain, where even 20 people couldn’t have stayed in the night.

Notably, Uttarakhand is the only state in the country that doesn’t have a permanent capital. Although Dehradun functions like a state capital but for all practical reasons, it’s not in black and white. None of the 11 chief ministers in the state has dared to announce the permanent capital of the state. Permanent capital has always been a bone of contention for the political class of the state.

Both the BJP and the Congress-led governments in the state have refrained from taking a stand on permanent capital for the state, mainly for the fear of stirring any hill-plain political discord.