Several BJP leaders in Uttarakhand are seething in anger after Anukriti Gusain, the daughter-in-law of former minister Harak Singh Rawat, joined the saffron brigade in Dehradun on Sunday.

The ED had conducted raids at 15 establishments of Harak and Anukriti in Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh on February 7 for their alleged involvement in a forest land scam.

Mahant Daleep Rawat, the BJP MLA from Lansdowne, wrote on Facebook in Hindi without taking any name: “Ram’s Ganga is polluted while washing the sins of the sinners. Will the Namami Gange scheme start here too?”

The Narendra Modi government started the Namami Gange scheme in 2014 to clean the Ganga.

The BJP had fielded Rawat over Anukriti from Lansdowne for the Assembly elections in 2022. A BJP leader in Uttarakhand told reporters on condition of anonymity that there was anger among the party cadres as well as the leaders over the entry of Anukriti in the organisation.

“The fear of going to jail has brought her to the BJP. It was planned by Harak, who would soon follow her. But such inductions make it difficult for us to claim that we are not into corruption,” he said.

Inducting her into the party, state BJP chief Mahendra Bhatt said: “We are giving her the membership of the BJP after consulting our senior leaders. Nobody is angry over this decision.”

After the induction, Anukriti said that CBI and ED inquiries are routine matters. “We are cooperating with them but we are not involved in any scam. I joined the BJP because I am impressed with the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Harak is a habitual turncoat. He had deserted the Congress and joined the BJP in 2016. He was made labour minister in the Pushkar Singh Dhami government but returned to the Congress in 2022 when the BJP suspended him for anti-party activities.

The Forest Survey of India had alleged that Harak had illegally felled 6,000 trees at the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve when he was environment and forest minister in 2000. The land adjacent to the forests was sold, grabbed illegally, and unauthorised constructions were allowed there. Anukriti’s name had also cropped up in the case. The Dhami government had started a vigilance inquiry against them in 2023 for grabbing government land and the case was transferred to the ED.