Will perform whatever duty the party assigns: Khanduri

Dehradun, December 7

Amid ongoing speculation about BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in poll-bound Uttarakhand, former Chief Minister BC Khanduri today said he will perform whatever duty is assigned to him by the party like a dedicated soldier.

“I could not have achieved in several births what the party has given me over the years. In future too I will perform whatever duty is assigned to me with the dedication of a soldier,” Khanduri told PTI.

“However, I must say that I shall speak strongly against anyone who does something wrong,” he said.

The BJP has so far shied away from projecting anyone as a chief ministerial candidate in the state where polls are due early next year.

Endorsing BJP central leadership’s decision to lower the upper age limit for people in leadership roles, he said it was a bold step and correct in principle but apart from honouring such decisions it will have to be seen whether they are being followed properly or not.

On the last Assembly elections held in the state in 2012, Khanduri said when he took over as Chief Minister for a second time in the latter half of 2011, it was being speculated that BJP would win only 7-8 seats but tough decisions taken in a span of just 3-4 months created an atmosphere which accelerated the party to the threshold of victory.

A number of bold decisions taken during his second tenure including a Lokayukta Act which kept the office of Chief Minister under the purview of the law and a transfer policy which did not allow posting of one person at the same place for a long time are credited for the party’s resurgence in 2012 elections in which it won 31 seats, just one seat less than Congress which could form the government in a 70-member state assembly with the prop of a seven-member PDF.

On the party not projecting a chief ministerial candidate in the state this time, Khanduri said declaring a chief ministerial candidate is not an ideological compulsion. “It has both advantages and disadvantages,” he said.

The BJP did not project a chief ministerial candidate ahead of the 2007 Assembly elections but formed a government under Khanduri’s leadership after emerging triumphant.

However, the party contested 2012 Assembly elections with the slogan of “Khanduri hain Zaroori” (Khanduri is required).

On demonetisation, he said one needed courage for taking such steps.

“They may cause temporary inconvenience but such decisions build our future,” he said. — PTI