Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has been asked by the Bharatiya Janata Party high command to put in his papers. The State legislature party is to meet on Sunday in Dehradun to elect B.C. Khanduri to replace Mr. Pokhriyal as Chief Minister of the hill State.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari made the announcement here on Saturday after a long meeting with Mr. Pokhriyal.
Mr. Pokhriyal was summoned to the capital by the BJP top brass after the Parliamentary Board decided at its September 8 meeting that he should be replaced. While Mr. Pokhriyal did come to the capital, he failed to keep his appointment with Mr. Gadkari. It was only after several frantic telephone calls that he was traced and forced to meet Mr. Gadkari, who sternly told him he would have to resign. Apparently, Mr. Pokhriyal was seeking an “honourable exit.”
In all probability, senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad is being asked to go to Dehr Dun on Sunday morning to be present at the meeting of the State legislature party as the central observer. Mr. Khanduri is to be elected the new State leader at this meeting, following which he will be sworn-in as Chief Minister — perhaps on Sunday itself.
BJP factional politics in the State seems to have come full circle; just over two years ago, Mr. Khanduri, as Chief Minister, was asked to make way for Mr. Pokhriyal.
It seems that internal party surveys have shown that Mr. Pokhriyal has become unpopular and the party is likely to lose the next Assembly elections due in about eight to nine months. There have been a series of allegations of corruption against him.
Mr. Khanduri has emerged as the man for the job to reverse the BJP's fortunes in the same surveys. The party's view is that with the Congress on the defensive everywhere on the corruption issue, the BJP has some chance to come back to power again in Uttarakhand, provided it gets rid of Mr. Pokhriyal.
It was when Rajnath Singh was party president that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh forced Mr. Khanduri's exit. At that time Mr. Khanduri virtually insisted that he would resign only if Mr. Pokhriyal, not the more popular Bhagat Singh Koshiari, took over as Chief Minister.
