Uttarakhand BJP in a fix as Big 4 eye CM's chair

Dehradun: The BJP, which scored a landslide victory in Uttarakhand, Sunday said the state legislature party will meet in a couple of days to elect a leader after the parliamentary board takes a final call in the matter.

With four former chief ministers — Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Vijay Bahuguna — waiting in the wings, the choice of a leader in Uttarakhand could be a tricky affair.

“A meeting of the state legislature party will be held in a day or two with permission from the central leadership to elect a leader and a final call in the matter will be taken by the party’s parliamentary board,” state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt told reporters.

BJP won a record 56 out of a total of 70 seats in Uttarakhand Saturday, reducing ruling Congress to a meagre 11 seats. Though denying he was in the race for any post, including the chief minister’s seat, the state BJP chief said he was ready for any responsibility which the party deems fit to assign him.

However, Mr Bhatt said the BJP was a very disciplined party and whoever gets the stamp of approval of the party’s parliamentary board will be the chief minister.

Mr Bhatt thanked people of the state for voting overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP and powering it to a “historic” win.

Crediting the party’s victory to the faith reposed in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, he said they inspired the people of Uttarakhand to vote for BJP.

He also attributed it to the hard work of its cadres and an eagerness among people to get rid of a “non-performing” and “corrupt” government.

Mr Bhatt said that as the main opposition, the party had fulfilled its responsibility of keeping a watch and exposing everything that was wrong about the previous government. “We worked as watchmen and always exposed the truth which seems to have paid off,” he said.

On the Congress’ rout which saw even chief minister Harish Rawat and a number of his Cabinet colleagues losing their seats, he said it was their total rejection by the people of the state.