Harish Rawat and Pritam Singh have been asked not to criticise each other on social media by the chairman of the Uttarakhand Cong

“They’re both my seniors. Everyone in the party has the right to express his or her opinion. “My advice to them is to speak whatever they need to say in the party platform rather than targeting each other on social media,” Mahra told reporters.

Mahra said party workers are in a state of despair after the assembly poll rout.

“A social media spat between senior party leaders in a situation like this demoralises them. They should think of the ordinary party workers at the grassroot and raise whatever issues they have to on appropriate party forum,” Mahra said.

A war of words is going on between former chief minister Harish Rawat and former leader of opposition in the state assembly and Chakrata MLA Pritam Singh on Twitter and other social media platforms in which they have been indirectly attacking each other.

In a social media post, Rawat on Sunday said it was not fair to “pour black ink over a glorious chapter in the state’s democratic history out of pure malice towards one individual”.

The former CM was referring to a Singh’s remark suggesting that Harish Rawat was himself responsible for the rebellion against him by party MLAs in 2016, which finally led to the imposition of the president’s rule briefly in the state.

Rawat said the reinstatement of his government through a floor test in 2016 was a triumph of democracy.

Harish Rawat recently stated that, as the party’s poll campaign chairman, he accepted responsibility for the party’s failure in the assembly elections, but that it was not proper to blame him casually for the party’s bad performance at every social occasion.

Singh is a former state Congress president. After the death of senior most party MLA Indira Hridayesh last year, he was appointed leader of the opposition in the state assembly. PTI RDK ALM