bjp: All eyes on BJP legislature party meeting to decide next Uttarakhand CM

All eyes are set on the BJP’s legislature party meeting here on Monday to decide the next chief minister of Uttarakhand where the party stormed back to power for an unprecedented second successive term. The meeting to be attended by BJP’s central observers for Uttarakhand — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi — is scheduled to start at the state party office here on Balbir Road at 5 pm.

The meeting will end the 10-day long suspense over who will wear the crown in Uttarakhand where the BJP contested the elections in the name of a young chief minister in Pushkar Singh Dhami.

Though Dhami lost his own seat of Khatima, he is the frontrunner for the top post among about half-a-dozen names doing the rounds. Other probable names for the top job include those of Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj, Shrinagar MLA Dhan Singh Rawat former Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt.

The party’s newly-elected MLAs will also gather at the BJP office here for the meeting to elect their leader. The MLAs were earlier in the day sworn in as members of the state assembly by its protem speaker Banshidhar Bhagat.