BJP projects Khanduri as next Uttarakhand CM, Cong mum

Ahead of the January 30 assembly polls in Uttarakhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday unleashed a media campaign projecting B C Khanduri as the hill state’s next chief minister — in its bid to take an edge on a “leaderless” Congress.

Despite mounting pressure, the Congress said it would not project any leader for the top post in Uttarakhand, where it is locked in an intense battle of ballots against the BJP.

The fresh BJP campaign came a day after senior party leader Rajnath Singh, who is in charge of the BJP affairs in the state, said his party would project Khanduri as its chief minister. “Khanduri is the chief minister. He will remain continue to hold the post once we form our own government (after the polls,” he added.

In September last year, when the BJP leadership risked replacing Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank as chief minister, the saffron party had initially projected all three state leaders — Khanduri, Nishank and Bhagat Singh Koshiayari — in order to minimise the infighting in the party. But after an assessment of the Khanduri's tenure, the party decided to project him as the sole leader of the state. “Khanduri has a clean image; so we are projecting him as our next leader,” said BJP spokesman Satish Lakhera, who also challenged the Congress to declare its chief ministerial candidate saying the opposition is only banking on its top leadership like president Sonia Gandhi and her general secretary son Rahul. “On the front page of the Congress manifesto, there is no space for state leaders,” he added.

As the pressure mounted on the Congress on the issue, a senior party leader it was up to the high command to take a decision.

However, party spokes-man Surendra Kumar said there was no tradition in the party to declare chief ministerial candidates. “The leader is only declared after taking the opinion from the elected MLAs,” he said. In this context, Kumar challenged the BJP to declare its prime ministerial candidate for next year’s general elections.

As of now, senior Congress leaders Harish Rawat, Vijay Bahuguna and Satpal Majaraj are some of the names doing the rounds for the chief minister candidate from Congress in the hill state.