By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 12 Feb: BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt’s selection as the party’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha election due to be held on 27 February comes as a major surprise even for senior political pundits. They feel that the selection of Mahendra Bhatt to replace Anil Baluni in the Rajya Sabha is indicative of the possibility of major changes regarding the coming parliamentary polls later this year.
Anil Baluni, Rajya Sabha member and currently the BJP’s National Media In charge, is set to retire in April. He has not been repeated by the party as its candidate for Rajya Sabha polls though some other retiring Rajya Sabha members in other states have been repeated, including Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi. In UP, except for Trivedi, none of the outgoing members have been repeated by the party. It may be reminded here that, in UP, ten RS seats are falling vacant in April and only Trivedi has bene repeated.
Some Union Ministers like Ashwini Vaishnav, Mansukh Mandavia and Dharmendra Pradhan have also not been repeated by the party, indicating that they may be asked to contest the Lok Sabha polls. Sources claim that Anil Baluni may also be asked by the party to contest Lok Sabha Polls from Pauri constituency, as he is considered to be a close confidante of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calls the shots in the party. In that scenario, the outgoing Lok Sabha MP Tirath Singh Rawat may have to make way for Baluni. This possibility has given rise to further speculation within the party of not just one but other outgoing MPs being replaced in Uttarakhand by the party. Currently, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah is the MP from Tehri, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ from Haridwar, Ajay Bhatt from Nainital, and Ajay Tamta from Almora (SC reserved).
Mahendra Bhatt is due to complete his first term as BJP State Chief in July. Sources claim that he may be retained till July even after getting elected to the Rajya Sabha in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Sources in the party claim that Bhatt has been quite fortunate in getting nominated, first, as BJP State President two years ago despite getting defeated in Assembly elections from Badrinath. However, he has wide political experience having won the assembly election twice in 2002 and 2017, respectively. He was active in politics in his college years in ABVP and then as state chief of BJP Yuva Morcha. He, however, lost the election in 2022 to Rajendra Bhandari of Congress from the Badrinath seat. However, just months after his defeat, he was made the BJP State President in July 2022 and will be completing his tenure in July. It may be recalled that, in BJP, the tenure of a state party president is two years while for the national president, it is 3 years. The party constitution permits one to be the president for two consecutive terms at the most. Hence, it remains to be seen if he is replaced after becoming the Rajya Sabha MP or continues till July or is again re-elected for a second term. Sources claim that the BJP wishes to retain him as state president till July in view of the coming LS polls and then he may be replaced, as a new party president may not have enough time to acclimatise on the new post before the elections. BJP is aiming to win all the 5 LS seats for the third straight time in Uttarakhand.
It may be also recalled that in the Bageshwar by-election held after Mahendra Bhatt took over as the state president in July 2022, the BJP candidate registered a big victory for the post of Rudraprayag District Panchayat President. Along with this, in the most important Panchayat elections in Haridwar district, BJP got historic success in forming its board in 6 blocks of District Panchayat Samiti Haridwar. Apart from this, BJP has also hoisted its flag in the milk cooperative union elections. The party has won almost all the elections held since Bhatt has taken over though he can’t be alone credited for those victories.
