Uttarakhand BJP bigwigs lend support to disgruntled MP

Crisis gripped the Bharatiya Janata Party with its three top leaders joining hands with former state BJP president Bacchi Singh Rawat days after the latter quit all his party posts to protest against his name ‘missing’ from the panel for the Nainital Lok Sabha constituency.

The three BJP leaders who recently came out in support of Bacchi Singh Rawat are the party’s former state presidents. They are Puran Chandra Sharma, Manohar Kant Dhyani and Bishen Singh Chuphal.

They have criticised the state parliamentary board for ‘sending a one-name panel each’ for all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state namely Almora, Nainital, Pauri, Tehri and Haridwar. The BJP central parliamentary board will finalise candidates during its meet in Delhi on March 13.

Former state BJP president Dhyani dubbed the state parliamentary board’s decision to send a one-name panel each for the five LS seats as unfair. “The move is unfair and we shall take up the issue with the members of the central parliamentary board,” he told HT on Tuesday.

“According to the party rules, the state parliamentary board should submit to the central leadership a minimum three-name panel for each LS seat,” Dhyani said. He alleged that the state BJP parliamentary board had submitted to the central leadership just a one-name panel for all the five LS seats in the state, which ‘is not only unfair but also against the party rules’.

State BJP president Tirath Singh Rawat, who also heads the state parliamentary board, has, however, denied the charge. “We submitted to the central parliamentary board a two-to-five-name panel each for all the five LS seats,” he said.

Speaking to HT on Tuesday, Tirath Singh maintained that some misunderstanding might have cropped up.

Senior BJP leader Munna Singh Chauhan has also come out in support of Bacchi Singh.