From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party is in dilemma in repeating Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami as the chief minister again since he lost the Assembly election early this month because of the principle since the party had protested election of Mamata Banerjee despite losing the West Bengal Assembly elections last month.
The party had adopted the same principle in repeating the CM’s post to Prem Singh Dhumal in Himachal Pradesh in 2017, making Jairam Thakur the chief minister. It is also in dilemma to make deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who lost the election in Uttar Pradesh.
A decision on whether to make a defeated leader a minister will be taken Saturday night in the party’s core group meeting to be attended among others by Prime Minister Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president Jagat Praksh Nadda. It may also take a decision on whether to make Dhami the Chief Minister despite losing the Assembly elections. The core group’s meeting will be held late Saturday night after return of Home Minister Amit Shah from Jammu.
The front-runners for the Uttarakhand CM are Dhan Singh Rawat, a Rajput and a hard-core RSS activist, and Rita Khanduri, daughter of former CM Major General (retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. Both were ministers in the outgoing government. Rita(55) is the only woman and a Brahmin face. Rawat is in his early 40s.
Satpal Maharaj lobbied to be the CM but he was eliminated since he is neither a hardcore RSS nor his age is in his favour. He as well as two other veterans Bansidhar Bhagat and Bishen Singh were dropped since they have all crossed 70 years and the party wants a younger face as the CM.
Two MPs are also in the race — former union education minister Ramesh Nishank and minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt. Nishank has been the chief minister before moving to the Centre.
Uttarakhand BJP President Madan Kaushik was thrice called to Delhi for consultations by the central leaders, but the party sources say he cannot be made the CM since he is not from the hills, not a Pahadi, as he hails from Haryana.
