New Delhi, May 23
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhuvan Chand Khanduri has got a fresh lease of life at least till May 28, when the bye election to his rival and former Chief Minister of the state Bhagat Singh Koshiyari’s Assembly constituency Kapkot is being held.
The BJP parliamentary board which met here today with the specific objective of deciding Khanduri’s fate “heard the report of central observers (Mukhatar Abbas Naqvi and Thawar Chand Ghelot) and held no further discussions on this,” said party general secretary Arun Jaitely after an hour and half long meeting of the parliamentary board this evening.
Taking moral responsibility for the party’s defeat on all five Lok Sabha seats from the state, Khanduri had come to Delhi earlier this week and offered his resignation. The BJP high command initialy seemed inclined to accept Khanduri’s resignation and had asked him to go and meet the governor with his resignation letter.
But back in Dehradun Khanduri turned tables on his detractors led by Koshiyari. Party sources said as many as 24 party MLAs out of a total of 34 have committed in writing their support for Khanduri.
On the other hand, the Koshiyari camp followers reportedly stayed away from the meet organised by the chief minister where the central observers claimed to have interviewed each MLA individually and
separately.
The banner of revolt against Khanduri was raised by Kohsiyari camp way back in August last year when 26 party MLAs had come to Delhi to meet party president Rajnath Singh and L.K. Advani to demand replacement of Khanduri. They had also warned that the party may face a rout if it persisted with Khanduri and that is what eventualy happened.
But instead of heeding to the rebels the high command removed Koshiyari from Dehradun and brought him to the Rajya Sabha. Now the election to the Kapkot assembly seat vacated by Koshiyari is due on May 28 and BJP is waiting to see the outcome of that election.
However, party sources said the chances of removal of Khanduri even after that appeared remote.
