By winning over senior Congress leader Lt Gen TPS Rawat (retd) to the BJP fold, Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri has not only exposed the internal rifts plaguing the Congress but also gave a fitting reply to his detractors within the BJP. Khanduri , a favourite of the BJP high command, was asked to take over the reins of the state after his party won the February 2007 Assembly elections much to chagrin of state BJP president and former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. Although the infighting within the BJP ranks never came to the fore, it was known that Koshiyari was totally uncooperative.Since most of the legislators owe their loyalty to Koshiyari who had been running the party in the region even before the state came into being, Khanduri had been finding it difficult to even persuade his own legislators to vacate an Assembly seat to pave his entry into the state legislature within six months of getting elected as Chief Minister. A few legislators did offer to resign for Khanduri but according to party sources they were under pressure from the Koshiyari camp to retreat. The differences between the leaders had come to such a pass that both complained to the party high command about the non-cooperative attitude of the other. Last month, both were summoned to Delhi and told to patch up. As a result, Koshiyari for the first time went to the office of the Chief Minister and in turn Chief Minister Khanduri visited the state party headquarters on instructions from above. But Khanduri was still unsure of the support of the Koshiyari camp in his by-election. But by winning over Rawat, a Thakur leader with a clean image in his own parliamentary constituency, Khanduri, a Brahmin, has more or less ensured that he will sail into the Assembly. While Khanduri will contest from Dhumakot Assembly segment in Pauri Garhwal district, a part of his own parliamentary seat, Rawat will contest the Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat to be vacated by Khanduri. Interestingly, Koshiyari was in the dark about Rawat joining the BJP but was summoned by the party leadership to Delhi for Rawat’s formal induction. While, Khanduri, Rawat and two other BJP leaders flew in a helicopter to Delhi, Koshiyari went by road.
