The crucial meeting held between the former Chief Minister and Garhwal MP Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri and the railway ministry’s senior officials regarding the long-awaited railway project connecting Rishikesh with Karnprayag in Delhi on Tuesday has a political message underlying it, say the observers. They say that the Centre would take up the long-delayed project in right earnest in no time to lend boost to the electoral prospects of BJP that seems set to contest the upcoming Assembly election under the leadership of Maj Gen Khanduri. “If things happen this way the credit for speeding up the rail project would go to the former CM and the saffron party is likely to reap electoral dividends out of it,” said a BJP insider.
Khanduri, though deemed as an efficient and strict administration, known for his no-nonsense approach, has, however, a chequered political career. He was defeated during the 2012 Assembly election from Kotdwar constituency by the Congress stalwart Surendra Singh Negi, giving a shell-shock to the saffron party with the latter making him the CM face for the tough electoral battle.
Much water though has flown in the Ganga since the day the BJP won 31 seats as against the Congress’s tally of 32 albeit the defeat of the party’s CM face.
When the state was embroiled in the grim political crisis starting with the nine Congress MlAs turning rebels on March 18, the BJP top brass based in Delhi gave enough hints that they were pinning immense confidence in Maj Gen Khaduri to wreck the Congress ship from within to pave way for the BJP to comeback to power. He left no stone unturned to become the CM during those tumultuous times. However, it came a cropper as the CM Harish Rawat romped back home, armed with the intervention of the judiciary.
Party insiders say that despite the dream of Khanduri to become the CM riding piggyback on the dissidence in the Congress remaining elusive , the party top brass still thinks that he is only person having credibility to adequately take the redoubtable Harish Rawat head-on during the ensuing great democratic engagement. The state party unit is accordingly adapting itself to what seems inevitable.