Monday, 17 JUNE 2024 | PNS | JOSHIMATH
Miffed at the Bharatiya Janata Party for fielding Congress turncoat and former Badrinath MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari in the Badrinath Assembly by election, party leader from Chamoli district and a cousin of the former Badrinath MLA, Virendra Pal Bhandari has announced that he will contest the bypoll as an independent candidate. He told the media on the weekend in Pokhri that a number of senior party leaders of the region will quit the party and support his candidature.
Virendra Pal Bhandari said that he had held various posts in the party including that as an MP representative during the term of former chief minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. He said that he had worked diligently as a party worker for more than twenty years. “However, the party first inducted the former Badrinath MLA and is now fielding him in the Badrinath Assembly by election. This is not just about me as many sincere party workers are miffed at the party favouring a person who has harassed BJP workers in this region in various ways. I am being contacted by a number of dissatisfied party leaders and workers who support the stand I have taken. I will file nomination as an independent candidate and on that day a number of senior party leaders will leave the BJP,” he claimed.
Observers point out that many in the BJP in the Garhwal region were not happy with the party leadership when the former Badrinath MLA had left the Congress and was inducted into the BJP. They were against his inclusion in the party as he had strongly worked against it in the region. The decision of Virendra Bhandari to contest the Assembly by election as an independent candidate from Badrinath may create some issues for the party, the observers opined.
