NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday picked Ramesh Pokhriyal as the new chief minister for Uttarakhand, putting a lid, at least for now, on a surge of dissidence in that state following the Lok Sabha elections.
Pokhriyal, 51, will replace B C Khanduri, who was forced to quit by rebels within the party after the BJP was defeated in all five Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Khanduri offered his resignation to party president Rajnath Singh on Tuesday. Pokhriyal — who was Health Minister in the Khanduri cabinet and has written novels and poetry — will meet Uttarakhand governor B L Joshi on Thursday, staking his claim.
He was elected as the leader of the 35-member BJP legislature party in the state at a meeting held in Delhi. Venkaiah Naidu and Thawar Chand Gehlot were deputed by the party’s central leadership as observers at the MLAs’ meeting.
The rebellion against Khanduri had been simmering for months. But it was strengthened after the Lok Sabha elections. Rebel Bhagat Singh Koshiyari quit his Rajya Sabha seat in an attempt to put pressure on the party leadership in Delhi. The party later persuaded Koshiyari to withdraw his resignation.
Talking toh reporters after the announcement of the new chief minister, Venkaiah Naidu admitted there was talk at the meeting that the change in the leadership “would send a wrong signal.” Naidu stressed that Khanduri had himself offered to resign — twice since the Lok Sabha results — assuming moral responsibility for the BJP’s defeat. At the meeting, Khanduri proposed Ramesh Pokhriyal as his replacement. And at the press conference that followed, Pokhriyal thanked Khanduri.