Thaindian News

Dehradun, Sep 11 (IANS) B.C. Khanduri was Sunday sworn in for the second time as the chief minister of the poll-bound Uttarakhand.

Khanduri, 76, a former union minister and a retired major general of the Indian Army, replaces Ramesh Pokhriyal, 54, who resigned on the orders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command following intra-party quarrels and allegations of corruption.

Governor Margaret Alva administered the oath of office and secrecy to Khanduri.

All the other 11 members of the Pokhriyal ministry - Matbar Singh Kandari, Prakash Pant, Banshidhar Bhagat, Diwakar Bhatt, Madan Kaushik, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Govind Singh Bisht, Vijaya Barthwal, Balwant Singh Bhoryal and Khajan Das - have been retained by Khanduri and were sworn in along with him.

Ending the two-day dramatic developments, Pokhriyal submitted his resignation to the governor after returning from Delhi Sunday morning.

“I am a worker of the BJP. I will perform what all duties the party wants me to do,” he told reporters here after submitting his resignation.

Khanduri was elected the new leader by a voice vote at a meeting of the BJP legislature party held later.

BJP national spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad and the party in-charge of the state, Thavar Chandra Gehlot, were present at the meeting.

Khanduri, who led the party back to power in the 2007 polls, was removed from the chief ministership in 2009 after the BJP had lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 elections.

The political drama began after reports Thursday that the central leadership had made up tis mind to remove Pokhriyal.

Though sources said the party leadership, especially L.K.Advani, was unhappy at the corruption allegations against Nishank, party chief Nitin Gadkari Saturday denied the chief minister was facing any corruption charge.

The party leadership was also disturbed over reports of groupism among the followers of Pokhriyal and former chief ministers Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Khanduri, party sources told IANS.

Pokhriyal’s resignation comes six weeks after Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned following his indictment by the state Lokayukta in corruption cases related to mining contracts.

–Indo-Asia News Service
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