| BC Khanduri steps down as CM of Uttarakhand | |
| Press Trust of India / Dehradun June 23, 2009, 17:34 IST | |
For an army general, fighting a battle might have been easier than facing the rough and tumble of politics as 75-year-old Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri must have realised while yielding to pressure from dissidents in Uttarakhand.
He stepped down as Chief Minister following the BJP's rout in Uttarakhand, where the party lost at all the five Lok Sabha seats recently.
The retired Major General had his baptism in politics during the Ram Temple movement in 1990s and there was no looking back for the leader, who got elected to the Lok Sabha four times and later shifted to state politics to hold reigns of the state for over two years.
He entered the portals of Parliament for the first time in 1991 when he won the Lok Sabha elections from Garhwal. He became a Union Minister of State (Independent charge) in the NDA government, headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, and was elevated to the cabinet rank in 2003.
As the minister in charge of road, transport and highways, he was credited with speedy implementation of BJP's prestigious National Highways Development Project.
After winning the Lok Sabha polls thrice more in 1998, 1999 and 2004, Khanduri came to state politics and became Uttarakhand chief minister in March 2007 after leading his party to victory in the new state carved out of Uttar Pradesh.
However, he felt the heat from dissidents within the party and the pro-changers led by former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari bayed for his blood after BJP was routed in the hill state.
Koshiyari resigned from the Rajya Sabha to build pressure on the party's central leadership for a change of guard in the state.
However, he withdrew his resignation apparently after assurance from the leadership that the dissidents' demand would be met.
Khanduri quit chief ministership after a meeting of senior leaders at the residence of senior party leader L K Advani decided to replace him last night.
The party's decision came after he owned responsibility for party's drubbing in the recent polls.
During his stint as the Chief Minister, he focussed on social issues like free education to students, but came in for criticism from industrialists who termed him as one opposed to development.
A member of the BJP national executive, Khanduri was the chief whip of party in the Lok Sabha, besides being the Vice-President of the party in Uttar Pradesh before its bifurcation.
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