Khanduri survives as Uttarakhand Chief Minister

Uttarakhands Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri who had been facing the possibility of being replaced,has managed a survival.

Sources in the BJP told The Indian Express, The two member committee that had come to take the views of the legislators on the issue of Khanduris survival,just read their report at the meeting of the Central Parliamentary Board of the party held in Delhi on Saturday evening. There was no discussion on his replacement. This simply means that he continues.

It is learnt that health minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and irrigation minister Matbar Singh Kandari along with three other legislators had rushed to Delhi on Saturday morning to further lobby for Khanduri.

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The issue that had started as an exercise to locate a possible successor of Khanduri following the latter taking the moral responsibility for the partys dismal performance in the Lok Sabha polls and asking the Central Parliamentary Board to take a decision on his future,had gradually turned into a power struggle based on supportive numbers of the legislators between the two rival groups led by Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Khanduri.

Khanduri had claimed the support of 24 of the 34 legislators in the party and had conveyed this to the two member committee comprising Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Thavar Chand Gehlot that had visited Dehradun on Friday.

This is the third time that Khanduri has managed a survival on the post of the Chief Minister in the face of dissidence over the last ten months. During the latter half of last year,more than 20 legislators had approached the party headquarters twice for his removal. But the party high command had stepped in for his defense and had entrusted him the responsibility of delivering good results in the Lok Sabha polls. Having led the party to a series of polls in the last two years,Khanduri could not get the party to win even a single seat out of five in the Lok Sabha polls. Heavy anti incumbency accompanied by internal strife in the party led to the dismal performance.

Having survived once again,the BJP under his leadership faces a major challenge in t he form of Kapkot by-poll scheduled for Mat 28. The seat had become vacant with Koshiyari being elected to the Rajya Sabha in November last year. After Kapkot,the party would also be facing a by-poll for the Vikas Nagar seat that had fallen vacant last month with its legislator Munna Singh Chauhan quitting both the assembly seat and the BJP to contest unsuccessfully from Tehri seat on a BSP ticket.