Koshyari skips core committee meeting

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 3

Senior BJP leader and Nainital MP BS Koshyari failed to show up at the core committee meeting of the Uttarakhand BJP at Bhimtal today.

Shiv Prakash Jaiswal chaired the brainstorming meeting, the third so far, on the 2017 Assembly elections. Senior BJP leaders Satpal Maharaj, Ajay Bhatt and Vijay Bahuguna attended the meeting.

Koshyari told this correspondent that, “I had prior engagements in my constituency that had to be given precedence, so I could not attend the meeting.”

However, his absence from the meeting is being seen as an attempt to exert himself in the face of repeated rebuff by the Central leadership.

The leader nearing 75 was eyeing a berth in the Modi Cabinet but failed to make it after a young leader, Ajay Tamta, was included in the recently held Cabinet expansion.

Though these are early indications in the run up to the Assembly elections, Koshyari will have to exert himself hard to ensure his utility as the one to lead the party in the Assembly election. Though the age barrier put up by Central BJP leader Amit Shah, in which leaders nearing seventies are not being considered for active politics, may put him at disadvantage.