Cong zeroes in on U'khand CM, names V Bahuguna

Uttarakhand has gone the UP way this time in the sense that a chief minister's son will be chief minister. Anupam Trivedi reports. Parade Ground to host Bahuguna's swearing-in ceremony

Uttarakhand has gone the UP way this time in the sense that a chief minister’s son will be chief minister.

Ending political uncertainty following the fractured verdict in the state, the Congress leadership decided on Monday Tehri MP Vijay Bahuguna, 64, would be the seventh chief minister of Uttarakhand.

Vijay Bahuguna, son of former UP chief minister the late Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna and brother of UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, resigned as a judge of the Bombay high court in the 1990s.

Congress-leader-Vijay-Bahuguna-seen-here-coming-out-of-Parliament-House-after-the-Presidential-address-to-the-joint-session-of-Parliament-on-the-first-day-of-Budget-session-in-New-Delhi-is-to-be-the-new-Uttarakhand-chief-minister

In UP Akhilesh Yadav, son of former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, will be CM.

Vijay Bahuguna and outgoing CM BJP’s BC Khanduri are first cousins.

“This does not mean the BJP will go soft on Bahuguna,” said Satish Lakhera, party spokesperson.

What clinched the issue in favour of Bahuguna is the strong rivalry among Union minister of state for agriculture Harish Rawat, state Congress president Yashpal Arya and Pauri MP Satpal Maharaj. The party was inclined to pick a name that was acceptable to all the factions.

“HN Bahuguna was a respectable figure in the hills. It is a proud moment for us to have his son as CM,” said Dhirender Pratap, party spokesperson.

Vijay Bahuguna joined politics in the 1990s and won the Tehri parliamentary bypoll in 2007. He was again elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009.

Political commentator Jay Singh Rawat said: “In 2002, ND Tiwari became CM because of the differences between Maharaj and Rawat and this time Bahuguna appeared front-runner because Maharaj joined ranks against Rawat.”

Bahuguna will take oath on Tuesday.