Other States - Uttaranchal   

Khanduri to stay for now, says BJP

Uttarakhand Chief Minister, B.C. Khanduri

DEHRA DUN: The crisis precipitated by 24 out of 36 ruling Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs urging the party president, Rajnath Singh on Sunday to replace the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri by an easily accessible leader seemed to have been stalled with Mr Singh urging the dissidents to wait for the right moment and rededicate themselves to the task of securing a good mandate for the party in the next general polls.

Mr Khanduri who is also in New Delhi was asked to sort out differences with the MLAs and Ministers and make the party stronger in the hill State.

Addressing a hurriedly called press conference here on Monday, the State BJP president, Bachi Singh Rawat said that the party would urge the dissidents and Chief Minister to sort out differences. “This is not the time to talk of a change in leadership as Panchayat elections are due next month,” he said adding that the MLAs and Ministers were free to air their feelings before the high command and necessary action would be taken at the appropriate time.

The dissidents led by former Chief Minister, Bhagat Singh Koshiary also met L.K. Advani and other senior leaders in New Delhi on Monday, Mr Rawat said.

The Ministers in the dissidents’ camp included the Health Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Tourism Minister Prakash Pant, Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and the Minister of State for Women Empowerment and Child Development Veena Maharana. Atleast two more Ministers are said to have expressed their support to the dissidents.

Mr Koshiary, Mr Nishank and Mr Pant seem to be in the race for cornering the top job.

The current scenario is similar to the dissidence that surfaced when Mr Khanduri, then an M.P, was declared Chief Minister by the high command last year.

“The revolt was sparked off by the autocratic style of Mr Khanduri where the voices of even the MLAs and senior Ministers were not heard,” several senior party leaders said adding that the people were facing a vacuum between themselves and the Government which was being run with the help of a few handpicked bureaucrats. If this situation continues, the BJP is bound to cut a sorry figure in the Panchayat as well as the next general polls, they said.

Meanwhile the Leader of the Opposition, Harak Singh Rawat said the Congress would support the dissident group form a Government.

The Congress MLA from Tehri, Kishore Upadhyay said that Mr Khanduri should resign on moral grounds as he had lost faith of a majority of his party MLAs.

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Khanduri to stay for now, says BJP

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