Former lawmaker defeated from Badrinath assembly seat, Mahendra Bhatt appointed Uttarakhand BJP chief
The BJP president J. P. Nadda has appointed former two term lawmaker Mahendra Bhatt as the new BJP chief of Uttarakhand. The selection of Mahendra Bhatt, two term lawmaker from Nandprayag and Badrinath assembly since 2012, had lost in the assembly election held on February 22 from Badrinath being defeated by Rajendra Bhandari of Congress, though with a negligible margin. The Bhartiya Janata Party’s central leadership has tried to maintain the caste balance in the state and has appointed Bhatt as its state chief as Pushkar Singh Dhami CM is from Rajput community n he a Brahmin. Not only this but the party has also balanced regional differences, a CM from Kumaon region and the party chief from Garhwal region. Mahendra Bhatt has worked as the BJP convenor of Garhwal region from 2012 to 2014 and thereafter as the state BJP secretary from 2015 to 2020. Extremely active in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement Bhatt was also the govt appointed member of the Uttarakhand Chardham Devasthanam Management Board. A politician with strong ideological commitment to the saffron party Bhatt is primarily the product of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad also active in separate Uttarakhand movement.
The chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami, former union minister of Education and Haridwar MP Dr. Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and former BJP state president Madan Kaushik congratulated Mahendra Bhatt on his elevation to the post office Uttarakhand BJP president. In a tweet he wrote : Today met the newly appointed president Mahendra Bhatt and congratulated him for his new responsibility.
It may be recalled that despite BJP winning with a resounding majority while the outgoing president Madan Kaushik was the state BJP chief, he has been deprived of his presidentship. There are rumours that there had been allegations against him about his non cooperation to party candidates from Haridwar during assembly elections. Some BJP candidates of Haridwar had openly accused him for allegedly being hand in glove with their opponents within the party working against them.
Sources reveal that the central high command is interested to give opportunity to new leaders of the party with old one’s not being considered for important posts. By first bringing in Pushkar Singh Dhami for the second time despite his losing from Champawat seat n now Mahendra Bhatt who has lost from Badrinath, the party leadership seems to be interested to promote those who are young and loyal to the party that senior old horses.
