Rajnath, Lekhi to remain present as observers in the meeting; Dhami leads the pack of dozen contenders in race for CM’s chair in U’khand
Monday, 21 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The suspense prevailing over the name of the new chief minister of Uttarakhand for the past 11 days would finally get cleared in the meeting of the legislature party of BJP on Monday. The crucial meeting of the legislature party would start at 5 PM in the office of the state BJP in Dehradun. In the meeting the name of the leader of the BJP legislature party (next CM of Uttarakhand) would be chosen in presence of central observers- the Union minister of Defence Rajnath Singh and the Union minister of State Meenakshi Lekhi. The meeting is expected to be a short affair with the central observers informing the newly elected MLAs about the choice of their new leader.
Meanwhile closed door meetings between the senior leaders of Uttarakhand and central leadership continued in Delhi on Sunday. On the day the meetings were held at the residence of the Union Home minister Amit Shah and former CM and Member of Parliament (MP) Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. In these meetings senior leaders such Pushkar Singh Dhami, BJP State chief Madan Kaushik, former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, cabinet minister Satpal Maharaj, national general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh and others were present. Later talking to the media persons in Delhi ,the caretaker CM Dhami merely said that he is heading for Dehradun and the new CM would be chosen in the meeting of the legislature party on Monday.
The former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat who has been camping in Delhi from last two days said that he is not in the race for being the next CM of the state. He said that he is not in the race and has not even contested the assembly election.
Even though he lost the assembly election from Khatima, the name of the caretaker CM Pushkar Singh Dhami is at the forefront among a dozen contenders for the top slot. Apart from him the names of Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni, former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, union minister of state Ajay Bhatt, cabinet ministers Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Bansidhar Bhagat, Rekha Arya, BJP State president Madan Kaushik, Prem Chand Agarwal and Kotdwar MLA Ritu Khanduri are making rounds in the political circles.
On Sunday the names of former cabinet minister Khajan Das, general secretary of state BJP Suresh Bhatt and Lansdowne MLA Dilip Rawat also surfaced as the probable candidates for the next CM of the state.
