Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna on his way out

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is on his way out, according to Congress sources, and Union Minister Harish Rawat and state minister Pritam Singh are emerging as the frontrunners for the top job in the hill state.

Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, All India Congress Committee General Secretaries Janardan Dwivedi and Ambika Soni, who is in charge of party affairs in the state, are being sent there as central observers, highly placed Congress sources said.

The observers will go there in a day or two and the change of guard is expected to take place by February 2.

A decision has been taken to replace Bahuguna. Rawat and Pritam Singh, who is food and civil supplies minister in the Bahuguna Cabinet, are the frontrunners, they said.

Others in the race include state Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh.

The decision to replace Bahuguna was taken at a meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had with senior party leaders on Wednesday.

Bahuguna has been under pressure ever since he was appointed. The flash floods that hit Uttarakhand last year and the massive rescue and rehabilitation work they entailed also brought his leadership skills into question.

Incidentally, delegations of Members of Legislative Assembly and other Congress leaders from the state have been regularly meeting central party leaders over the past six months to demand Bahuguna's ouster.

The Congress, with 33 members in the assembly, enjoys the support of the seven-member Progressive Democratic Front that comprises three independents, three members of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one MLA of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal.

The remaining 30 MLAs are from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Rawat -- who lost to Bahuguna in the race for CM in 2012 -- has been in pursuit of the post.

But the party high command fears that his elevation will intensify factionalism in the deeply divided state unit of the party.

The Union water resources minister was the first Pradesh Congress Committee president of Uttarakhand after its formation. Rawat, despite leading the party to victory in the 2002 assembly elections as the PCC chief, had to make way for N D Tiwari.

He was sidelined again in 2012, when Vijay Bahuguna became the CM. A sulking Rawat was made a cabinet minister at the Centre later.

Reports had it that it could be a close fight between Rawat and Pritam Singh for the top post.

Hridayesh recently surprised many by openly staking claim to the top post. The senior most member of the Bahuguna Cabinet, Hridayesh had created a flutter by suggesting her name for the post of chief minister in case of a change of guard in Uttarakhand.

"If at all things move in that direction (change of guard), of course I deserve to occupy the top post. I have been in parliamentary politics since 1974," she had said.

Incidentally, Pritam Singh belongs to the Rawat camp and he could emerge as a compromise candidate if the anti-Rawat factions refuse to accept him. Pritam Singh is an MLA from Chakrata.