On Saturday, in a major blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), Manish Khanduri, son of senior party leader and former Uttarakhand CM, B C Khanduri, joined the Congress at Party President Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Dehradun.
Manish Khanduri, son of ex-Uttarakhand CM&BJP leader BC Khanduri, on joining Congress: I believe that under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, Congress will make country stronger. Before coming here,I sought blessings of my father. He asked me if I can walk on path of truth,I said, 'yes’ pic.twitter.com/4sOvWWzRlS
— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2019
While the Congress is yet to announce the candidates for the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, it is speculated that the Congress is planning to field Khanduri from Pauri Garhwal seat.
Presently, the seat is represented by B C Khanduri as a BJP MP, who is also a five-time Lok Sabha MP.
Manish Khanduri, is an MBA graduate in marketing and finance from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the United States.
Previously, he was an assistant editor at the Business Standard newspaper, and a senior assistant editor at Businessworld magazine.
In response to the event, B C Khanduri said that his son is an educated young man and he’ll go wherever he wants. Further said that his son was never in BJP.
Ex-Uttarakhand CM&BJP leader BC Khanduri on his son Manish joins Congress: He's an educated young man. He'll go wherever he wants. I fail to understand why questions are being raised. It's not that he has to follow me everywhere. I contributed to BJP, not him. He was never in BJP pic.twitter.com/8t0yh65dRI
— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2019
During 2003-2004, B C Khanduri rendered service as the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways.
Also, B C Khanduri rendered his service as the Uttarakhand CM between March 2007 and June 2009, and during September 2011 to March 2012.
In September 2014, B C Khanduri was appointed as the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence.
However, he was removed from the post in August last year.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand BJP president Ajay Bhatt, along with CM Trivendra Rawat met Khanduri on Friday at his residence in New Delhi to convince him to contest the upcoming polls from the Pauri Garhwal seat, as reported.
They said, “We had visited Khanduri ji to request him to contest from the Pauri seat, but he said that he was unwell and that he wouldn’t contest the polls. We also discussed his son joining the Congress, and Khanduri ji told us that joining the Congress was his son’s personal decision, and that as a BJP leader he would always serve the BJP irrespective of his son joining the Congress,” as reported by Indian Express.
A Congress wave is building up. It can sweep the whole nation.