With its eye on the Uttarakhand Assembly polls slated for next year and in a bid to keep growing dissidence at bay, former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and now Rajya Sabha MP is likely to be named in-charge of the state election committee while another former chief minister B.C. Khanduri will be brought to the party’s central team.
Sources disclosed a meeting of state chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the two former chief ministers and some of the seniormost leaders from the state with the party top brass could be called soon to discuss the party’s strategy for the coming Assembly polls. There are 70 Assembly constituencies in the state, with the BJP having 34 members in the current Assembly.
Though there is pressure on the central leadership to change the leadership in the state, the BJP top brass is not in favour, sources said. The Nishank government had been embroiled in controversies, including land scams, and his detractors within the state unit had been gunning for his ouster.
Party sources said a recent survey conducted by the BJP top brass has revealed that internal dissidence has marred the party’s image in the state badly.
Instead of preparing for the Assembly polls, state leaders are busy “pulling each other down”, the survey states.
To add to the worries of the BJP central leadership, which wants to remain in power, the survey’s findings say otherwise.
Most of the development works undertaken by the state government are unknown to most of the people as the BJP’s state unit is engulfed in internal feud.
The BJP top brass had to remove Mr Khanduri from the CM’s post after Koshiyari-led dissidents had raised banners against him.
The BJP top brass is likely to ask its Uttarakhand leaders to keep differences at bay.