Uttarakhand: BJP falls short of majority

MAN ON TOP: Former union minister BC Khanduri is the top contender for the chief ministerial post.

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New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fallen short of majority by just one seat in Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand has a 70-member Legislative Assembly but elections were held in only 69 seats. Out of the 69 seats, BJP has won 34, the Congress 21, the Bahujan Samaj Party eight while Uttarakhand Kranti Dal managed to win just three seats.

The independents managed to win the remaining three seats.

Election for the Bajpur Assembly election was deferred due to the death of the Congress candidate.

The Congress, on its part, conceded defeat in the Uttarakhand with state party spokesman Surendra Agarwal saying the division of secular votes led to its debacle.

"The results show a mandate against the Congress party at the state and the Centre level. The BJP will form the government in both states (Punjab and Uttarakhand) comfortably," BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Khanduri said he would be "certainly happy" to don the mantle of Chief Minister. "I will consider it a good fortune to serve the people," PTI quoted Khanduri as saying as the results from the 69 seats where polling was held came in. However, he added that it would depend on the BJP leadership to name the Chief Minister.

The priorities of the new government would be to provide credibility and accountablity in governance, check corruption and put an end to "blatant misuse" of funds, PTI quoted as saying.

The second in line is Bhagat Singh Koshiari from the RSS. The fact that Koshiari is a Thakur and 57 per cent of the electorate consists of Thakurs may work in favour of Koshiari.

"I was sure about BJP gaining an absolute majority in Uttarakhand. Whosoever is chosen as the chief minister will be any day better than Tiwari," Koshiari said.

However, Naqvi did not give any clear indications on the party's candidate: "We are not talking to anyone as of now. The Chief Ministers will be decided at the Parliamentary board meeting on Tuesday evening."

Former party president Venkaiah Naidu said, "We will send an observer to Uttarakhand and decide on the Chief Minister candidate in the parliamentary board."