Interestingly, a day after Satpal Maharaj was included in the Uttarakhand BJP core committee, former Chief Minister and Garhwal MP Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri said he would contest the 2017 Assembly election if the party high command asks him, a development that indicates that three saffron heavyweights and ex-CMs - Gen Khanduri, Naintal MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Haridwar MP Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank - might close ranks in the days to come to stonewall any attempt to foist Maharaj on them ahead of the election. Notably, former MP Maharaj switched to BJP from the Congress during the general election-2014.
Resentment in the camps loyal to the three local satraps would deepen in case the party high command decides to parachute Maharaj in the trajectory of the State politics with an eye on the 2017 Assembly election, said a BJP insider. Things are worrisome for the trio with Maharaj now training his gun almost daily on the State Government for the latter's acts of omissions and commissions with redoubled zeal. "He is sure to come up a strong contender for the CM's chair if the high command pitches for him. However, the negative point for him is that he is shorn of a strong following among the people. He has no constituency of his own unlike the three other formidable contenders," the saffron party insider said.
BJP watchers said a tough tussle is in the offing with once arch rivals Maharaj and Gen Khanduri, who contested against each other in elections, now sailing in the same boat. "It is thus natural that they would try to out-manoeuvre each other to project themselves as better bait for the party," an observer said. Political analysts are of the view that times ahead might prove tough for Gen Khanduri who, though being generally deemed as good, has a negative tag of collective rejection shadowing him.
The BJP lost the last Assembly battle despite the party high command having thrown full weight behind him. The BJP high command had foisted Gen Khanduri at the helm in the State on September 11, 2011 with a hope that he would ensure the party to romp back home for the second consecutive term. He not only just failed to conjure up the desired result but himself lost from Kotdwar constituency. "This loss proved dear for the party as the Congress slipped past the BJP by just one seat, winning 32 with the tally of the saffron party getting stuck in 31.
The defeat of the party's Chief Ministerial candidate was dubbed as the outright rejection of his leadership by the people. This would definitely weigh with the party's high command when time would come for it to pitch for one to lead the battle for the crown for the 2017 Assembly election as its generalissimo," said a State BJP watcher.