Lucknow, Dec. 20: The politics of renaming Uttaranchal will dominate the Congress campaign in the forthcoming state polls but many in the party doubt if it can save chief minister N.D. Tiwari from an anti-incumbency wave.

India’s 27th state is to be renamed Uttarakhand after presidential consent, which is expected any day now.

History and heritage will form the core of the Congress campaign. On December 27, Sonia Gandhi is expected to highlight these in her address at a rally in Dehra Dun.

While Congress workers seem to have woken up to the state’s hoary past, detractors are asking why the name change is being projected now, as the party had already promised it in its manifesto for the 2002 state elections.

Senior BJP leader Bhuban Chandra Khanduri said: “Initiating the change of name now is laughable. The Congress had promised this in 2002. Flogging the same theme makes bad politics.”

The Union cabinet began the name-change exercise in August and a bill was passed in Parliament. “The Uttaranchal (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2006, has been submitted to the President for referring it to the Uttaranchal legislature,” a House spokesman said.

State Congress chief Harish Rawat said: “The name is linked to our Puran and ancient literature. It is in the fitness of things that the name of the state is being changed. Uttaranchal will be a historical aberration and Uttarakhand will be a reality soon.”

However, Rawat’s associates are not optimistic. Many of them feel the BJP and other Opposition parties will highlight the poor programme implementation by the chief minister in their campaign.