Months after it lost power in Uttarakhand, demands for fixing accountability for the defeat and review of the poll performance are growing louder in the state BJP and has reached the doorstep of the central leadership.
A host of leaders from Uttarakhand have met BJP chief Nitin Gadkari — together and separately — over the last few days seeking rectification of mistakes committed in the run-up and after the elections earlier this year. The party had effected a leadership change in Uttarakhand replacing chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ months before the polls.
Interestingly, a sitting BJP MLA who was denied ticket from his Assembly seat so that B C Khanduri — who replaced Nishank as the CM — could contest from there has also approached Gadkari, seeking a review of the election performance in his Assembly segment of Kotdwar. When contacted, Shailendra Rawat, who was expelled from the party recently, confirmed he met the BJP chief and sought a review.
Many other state BJP leaders too argued that the election strategy was way off the mark. “Grave mistakes were committed in the run-up to assembly elections. All the state leaders are aware of the mistakes. It is time that accountability is fixed for the mistakes of some that weighed down the party,” Lakhi Ram Joshi, vice-president of state BJP, told The Indian Express over phone.
He said a section of state leaders demanded that the mistakes be rectified when they met Gadkari.
Joshi also resented the appointment of Ajay Bhatt as the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly ignoring veteran Harbans Kapoor. “We have not learnt the lessons. Majority of the MLAs were in favour of appointing senior party leader Harbans Kapoor as the Leader of the Opposition, but their views were ignored. The person who was picked for the post has little support,” he said.
“Party workers in the state are agitated over the defeat in the Assembly elections. They are keen for a review of party’s poll performance by the central leadership to identify the shortcomings in the party strategy for future. I will bring their demand to the notice of party leadership,” BJP vice-president Ramesh Pokhriyal said when asked about the meeting.
Src: The Indian Express