Maj Gen Bhuvan Chand Khanduri (retd) was today unanimously elected leader of the Uttarakhand BJP amidst six hours of high drama and suspense paving his way to become the next Chief Minister of the state.

But, the stubborn resistance shown by Uttarakhand BJP Chief and former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and party legislators to accept the choice of the central party leadership, took all the persuasive skills of the party observers Gopinath Munde and Om Mathur as well as party incharge Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The happenings today clearly indicated that it would not be a smooth ride for the retired General. The inter-party rivalry came to the fore at the legislature party meeting where more than 24 out of 34 newly elected legislators sided with Bhagat Singh Koshiyari against the wishes of the central party leadership.

Khanduri was the choice of the senior central party leadership including former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, but the RSS ‘Parcharak’, also stood his ground till the end. Several rounds of talks with central leadership by Khanduri and Koshiyari in Delhi in the past two days had failed to end the deadlock. The two party observers had an inkling of Koshiyari’s mood in the morning when they went to call upon him at his residence. Koshiyari had met more than 20 MLAs and was completely adamant to forego his claim to the top post.

The deadlock continued in the legislature party meeting that started at 3.30pm. Finally, party observers Gopinath Munde and Om Mathur emerged from the meeting at around 9.30 pm to announce that Maj Gen B C Khanduri (retd) has been unanimously elected leader of the Uttarakhand Legislature party. His name was proposed by his arch rival and state BJP chief Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and seconded by Ramesh Nishank. Munde further said that both Khanduri and Koshiyari would call upon the state Governor Sudarshan Aggarwal to stake claim to power.

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