BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni said, “We have met with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and demanded a probe into the alleged irregularities in Uttarakhand during the tenure of former Governor Aziz Qureshi. We sought a review of certain decisions taken by him.”
He also alleged that the former Governor’s role was wrong in appointing officials of two universities in Uttarakhand after he was shifted to Mizoram as Governor.
Baluni sought inquiry into illegal use of aircraft, irregular appointments and "purely commercial use" of ‘Raj Bhawan’ at Nainital under Qureshi’s tenure as Governor.
The BJP leader said Professor Matthew was given extension of six month in university of horticulture and SP Mishra was appointed Professor in Ayurvedic University of Uttarakhand even though the latter had exceeded the age of 65 - the retirement age for faculty members.
The BJP leader charged that these appointments were not valid as Qureshi was then not a Governor of Uttarakhand. He asked Home Minister to institute a probe and review of all the decisions taken under Qureshi’s tenure.
Baluni further said that during membership campaign they have enrolled over nine crore members across India - a figure that is higher than the membership of the Communist Party of China which has a membership of 8.8 crore. The enrollment drive would continue till April 30 and probably we would touch 10 crore.
In this process, anyone can become a member of BJP by giving just a missed call. Thereafter, we would ask the aspirant to fill the forms in proper format, he said.
This drive would be followed by mass contact campaign from May 1 to June 30 during which we will visit the house of the new members to acquaint him or her with the party’s history and heritage.
later, we would organise training programme for them between July 1 and August 30. This is meant to ideologically orient them and to teach them as to how Government’s achievements should be taken out to the common masses.
During training programme, we would teach them about how to pick up issues from daily happening.
Reacting to the Congress’s ensuing programme against the alleged step-brotherly treatment of Uttarakhand by the Centre, Baluni said that during UPA regime, they had kept mum. Even they could not gather courage to challenge Eco-sensitive zone declaration and now they are going to stage protest in Delhi. It seems they are organising protest for the sake of protest only.
Talking about the Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Baluni said that CM Rawat can be likened to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Moghal. BJP would come to power with a thumping majority in Assembly election-2017.
However, the Congress leadership has taken strong exceptions to Baluni seeking probe against a former Governor. The chair of the Governor should be kept above the heat and dust of politics, the ruling party state present Kishore Upadhyaya said.