The BJP in Uttarakhand is once again on tenterhooks with former Chief Minister B C Khanduri getting politically active after a two-month dormant spell. Khanduri’s decision to start a mass contact programme in the hill districts of Uttarakhand from Sunday is being monitored closely by the BJP leadership to gauge the mood of the masses.

Khanduri told The Indian Express a few days ago, “I want to go back to the people and travel in the area with a view to understand their problems. It is only the continuing monsoon that has been holding me back as it is not the right time to meet the people who are busy with their own issues.” He had added that he has spent the last two months thinking about the state — how things were dreamt to be, how they were and where they were going.

Sources say Khanduri is eyeing another innings at the top of the state politics as he had made it evident in his recent letter to party president Rajnath Singh that he was not happy with the way he was removed from the Chief Minister’s post two months ago. His meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday is said to be another step in this direction as he is learnt to have conveyed to him that he was not treated properely following BJP’s loss in the Lok Sabha polls. His bete-noire and former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari calling on Bhagwat on Sunday has further confused the BJP functionaries in the state.

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