New Delhi: It was a bad start for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttarakhand as it faced open dissidence on Thursday as the newly-elected BJP legislatures met to elect their leader in Dehradun.
There was public display of bickering and chaotic scenes at the BJP legislature party meeting, which took over six hours to decide on the leadership issue in spite of the party top brass clearing the name of former Union minister B C Khanduri for the post on Wednesday.
As soon as Khanduri's name was announced, slogan-shouting by supporters of Khanduri and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari broke out, which led to chaotic scenes and jostling.
The meeting later unanimously elected Khanduri as the leader of the legislative party, paving the way for his becoming the state Chief Minister, but not before the meeting witnessed slogan-shouting by his supporters and those of Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, the other contender for the post.
Koshiyari was strongly opposing the candidature of Khanduri in spite of having reached a deal on the issue at a meeting with party President Rajnath Singh in Delhi on Wednesday.
Making an announcement before the media after the legislature party meeting, BJP central observers Gopinath Munde and O P Mathur, however, said the name of Khanduri was proposed by Koshiyari, a former chief minister, and seconded by party general secretary Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank .
They said the party, which fell one seat short of majority in the 70-member Assembly, would formally stake claim to form government before Governor Sudarshan Agarwal on Friday.
Munde also claimed the support of two independent MLAs, but refused to disclose their names. "We will disclose their names before the Governor," he said.
Munde expressed confidence that the BJP would be able to prove its majority in the Assembly. Munde, however, denied any dissidence in the party, saying the meeting was prolonged due to deliberations with MLAs.
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