Faced with a rebellion after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rout in the Lok Sabha elections from the state, Uttarakhand Chief Minister boffered to quit the post and his resignation was Tuesday accepted by the party, an official said.
The BJP lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state in the recent polls, including the three it had won in 2004.
BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh confirmed to IANS that Khanduri had “offered to resign and it has been accepted”.
Khanduri, 75, was facing a rebellion from party legislators ever since the poll defeat.
“Khanduri had offered to resign immediately after the poll results but it was not accepted till last night,” a party source told IANS.
He added that party president Rajnath Singh was initially unwilling to accept the resignation, but agreed seeing the unrest among party MLAs in the state.
Former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who was leading the revolt against Khanduri, resigned as Rajya Sabha member last week to pressurise the party leadership to remove him.
Ten other legislators along with Koshiyari had written a complaint letter to Rajnath Singh against Khanduri.
The party has convened a meeting of its legislators Wednesday to decide on a successor to Khanduri.
According to party sources, state Health Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal is a front runner for the post and not Koshiyari.