'Khanduri to resign over poll debacle in Uttarakhand'

Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri will submit resignation over poll debacle to party chief Rajnath Singh, informed BJP sources on Tuesday in New Delhi.

After the disastrous performance of BJP in Uttarakhand in the Lok Sabha polls, a section of party MLAs led by former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari has launched a renewed move against BC Khanduri to remove him from the state's top job. Koshiyari went to New Delhi and met several leaders in this regard.

Earlier, Chief Minister Khanduri had come under fire from various quarters, including state party leadership and MLAs soon after BJP's debacle in Uttarakhand where it lost all the five Lok Sabha seats to Congress.

There were indications that the BJP high command was contemplating a move for a change of guard in the hill state, which deepened the suspense over the chief minister's future.

It is still not clear as to who would be the choice for the next chief minister in case Khanduri resigned.

State Health Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, state Tourism Minister Prakash Pant and Koshiyari are among the front-runners for the state's top job, the sources said.

Last year Koshiyari was forced to quit his Kapkot assembly seat after he led a similar move to oust Khanduri. At that time, the BJP high command had rejected the demand to remove Khanduri in view of the Lok Sabha elections.

The Koshiyari camp had been alleging that Khanduri was inaccessible and development works were suffering under his rule.

ALSO READ

PM should clear confusion over UPA's China policy: BJP

Raised incursion issue with China, but no blame game: Salman Khurshid

Kapil Sibal to take charge of Law Ministry, C P Joshi gets Railways

PMK founder S Ramadoss released from prison, slams Jayalalithaa govt