Uttarakhand Top Job Contenders: Heavyweights, Turncoats And The Dark Horse

Dehradun: Uttarakhand voters have spoken their mind, giving the BJP eight out of every ten assembly seats that went up for polls. Now it is the BJP leadership's turn, to pick one out of the state's long list of aspirants that includes turncoats, heavy-weights including former chief ministers and low-profile leaders - encouraged by the party's choices in Maharashtra and Haryana - hoping to be the proverbial dark horse.

In all, the party netted 56 out of 69 seats for which the results have been declared. The results in one seat will be announced after the re-poll in one polling booth on March 15. The BJP parliamentary board is expected to name the party's chief minister the next day.

Satpal Maharaj, a former Congressman who joined the BJP in 2014, after quitting the Congress on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, is considered a key contender for the state's top post. Son of a spiritual master and a former Union Minister, he worked as a foot-soldier for two years before getting the ticket.

"Satpal Maharaj's contesting from the hill district of Pauri moves the political geography of Uttarakhand away from the plains to the hills. This may work in his favour," said a BJP leader.

The former Congress leader, however, has competition from Trivendra Singh Rawat, the BJP leader who also oversaw the party's affairs in Jharkhand earlier as the state in-charge. Rawat is believed to have the confidence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah and could have, in the words of a senior state BJP leader, "be preferred by the party cadre over Satpal Maharaj".

Prakash Pant, the Pithoragarh lawmaker who had PM Modi address an election rally in his constituency, is seen as another high-profile contender. The first speaker of the Uttarakhand Assembly, Pant was also among the state leaders to rush to Delhi after counting ended.

And then, there are close to six candidates including four former CMs: Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Maj General BC Khanduri (retd), Ramesh Pokhriyal and Vijay Bahuguna who had joined the party from the Congress last year. There is speculation they might try to push their nominees if they don't make it.

A BJP leader Yatishwaranand, who defeated the Congress' Harish Rawat in his Haridwar Rural consistency, and Harak Singh Rawat, the former Congress leader who contested from Kotdwar seat, had also queued up. Some leaders suggested that party brass could also go for someone who had a toehold in state politics but yet wasn't deeply entrenched, someone like the party's national spokesperson who hails from Uttarakhand, Anil Baluni.