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Journalism of Courage
Questioning his removal from the post of the Chief Minister two months back,BC Khanduri has fired a salvo at the party leadership.It has also put the BJP unit in the state into a spin.
Khanduri has been unhappy over the party high commands decision to replace him with Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank despite the fact that he enjoyed the support of majority of Uttarakhand legislators. However,he has not gone public with his resentment.
I will not discuss party affairs publicly, he said in Dehradun on Wednesday while adding,I would be raising these issues at the appropriate party forums. However,he did not deny writing a letter to his party chief.
By writing a letter to BJP President Rajnath Singh,he has joined he other senior party leaders like Yashwant Sinha,Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie in questioning the manner his party has reacted to the loss in the Lok Sabha elections.
He had told The Indian Express a few days back,I am sad at the developments in the party. After the Lok Sabha elections there has been a certain reaction that should not have been there. Getting lesser number of seats than expected and I would not call it losing the elections,has upset us more than it should have. I hope things will improve and the party would retain its old glory.
He has reportedly alleged that despite collective responsibility of the party for the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections,he was singled out and made scapegoat.
Sources say that he has sought an explanation from the leadership and a rethink about its decision to remove him.
According to sources,Khanduri would be leaving for Delhi on Wednesday night. He has remained tight lipped about the contents of the letter in Dehradun despite several journalists approaching him during the day.
The salvo fired by him has again put the BJP in Uttarakhand in turmoil as Nishank is yet to prove himself as a leader and is yet to take the first test in the form of the Vikasnagar assembly by-election scheduled for September 10.
Sources also say that the defiance shown by Rajasthan Legislature Party Chief and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has also given moral courage to Khanduri to fight another political battle on his home turf.
Commenting on the way the BJP has fared over the years,he had told The Indian Express that he had come into the party fold as an idealist. The picture we perceived was that of a party that is serious,nationalist in approach and where there is no corruption. I do feel sad as things have changed. But then the society and the world are changing. I feel I was living in an ideal world, he said.
