Koshiyari may head U’khand BJP

The two candidates in the race to become BJP's Uttarakhand president — Teerath Singh Rawat and Trivendra Singh Rawat — were virtually forced to withdraw their nominations on Sunday evening.

While Teerath was backed by two former chief ministers, B C Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Trivendra was put up as a candidate by another former CM Bhagat Singh Koshiyari's camp. Though both announced that they withdrew on their own, there were indications that the BJP's central leadership had already decided to appoint a new state president. "The party has a tradition of electing state presidents unanimously. So we decided to withdraw our nomination papers to pave the way for the unanimous election of state president," said Teerath, accompanied by Trivendra.

Sources in the BJP said that the party leadership has almost made up its mind to appoint Koshiyari as the state president. "The party high command has communicated to Khanduri and Nishank its decision to appoint Koshiyari as the party's new president in the state. However, they were not in his favour. Finally, the party high command took a rigid stand and asked the two contenders to withdraw their nominations," said a source.

The situation took a serious turn when Khanduri and Nishank reportedly communicated to central observer Vijay Goel that they would prefer an election to the post.

State election officer Kedar Joshi said that the name of the new state president would be announced by the central leadership, but did not give a time frame . "It is a decision which the central leadership is supposed to take," he said.

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