The selection of the State BJP president keeps hanging fire as the party High Command is biding time with a consensus remaining elusive. State party insiders say a consensus evolving on the name is difficult, given the faction-ridden State of the party. Three satraps, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri and Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (all former Chief Ministers and now MPs), are pulling the strings in different directions, sources say. Two brainstorming sessions held in Delhi on December 15 and 20 have come a cropper.
As per party sources, two names are doing the rounds and they are of the former Cabinet Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and former organising general secretary Dhan Singh Rawat. There is, however, another leader, party’s national spokesperson Anil Balooni, a Brahmin, who is also eyeing the post.
But the scales are against him as he does not enjoy the sway over the State party’s rank and file, especially as he ought to in view of the fact that the State is set to go for Assembly election in 2017. “Things are doubly difficult for the party’s central leadership, as they have to select a name acceptable to all the warring factions and, at the same time, who must inspire enough confidence among the masses to wean them away from the ruling Congress,” an observer said.
Currently, all three former CMs, representing the Parliamentary constituencies of Udham Singh Nagar, Garhwal and Haridwar, are unlikely to pitch in, though they would be elated if the party’s national leadership favours them with the post. But such a scenario is unlikely, as anyone of them being selected would exacerbate the simmering intra-factional tension which the party can ill-afford at this crucial juncture.
Talking to The Pioneer, Koshyari said he has no idea about who is going to be appointed as State BJP chief. However, he made it clear that he has no problem either with Trivendra or with Dhan.
However, things are not as he seeks to make them appear. Observers say Khanduri has reasons to be ill-disposed towards Trivendra as when he was the CM between 2007 and 2009 Trivendra had marched to Delhi along with his followers to vent anger against the former general’s autocratic style of functioning. However, the equations between Trivendra and Dr Nishank are not good either as the latter did not throw his full weight behind Trivendra when the former had contested Doiwala Assembly bypoll in July 2014. The by-poll was necessitated after Dr Nishank had quit it following his election to the lok Sabha. Trivendra had contested and lost.
Sources further say that to maintain regional balance involving Garhwal and Kumaon and the caste balance involving Thakur and Brahmin, the party might replace the present leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt with a new face. If this happens somebody, a Thakur from Garhwal, might pitch in.