India News | Central Leaders Visit to U'Khand for State Govt's 4th Anniversary: Dushyant Kumar Gautam

New Delhi, Mar 7 (PTI) BJP general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam said on Sunday that senior party leader Raman Singh and his visit to Uttarakhand was aimed at giving shape to programmes to mark the state government's fourth anniversary and how it should approach the election year.

Though the visit and the two central leaders' interaction with the state party core group, including Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, has given rise to speculation about political changes in the state, more so as the meeting was planned quickly, Gautam rejected reports that the party was planning a change of guard in the hill state.

"This is unnecessary speculation," he told PTI.

Gautam, who is the BJP leader in-charge of the state, said this is the first time a chief minister in the state has completed four years of tenure, and this called for presenting an exhaustive report card to the people and also planning programmes for the next year.

Singh, who is a former Chhattisgarh chief minister, is a party vice president. He held talks separately with senior state party leaders.

There is also a view that there might be a cabinet reshuffle in the state which will go to the polls early next year.

The hurriedly called meeting of the central leaders with the members of the core group on Saturday came at a time when the budget session of the state assembly is underway in Gairsain.

The BJP MLAs were called back from Gairsain to state capital Dehradun in view of the core committee meeting.

The sudden meeting of the core committee for which Rawat had to fly back to Dehradun in a hurry from Gairsain assumes significance.

Core group members -- Rajya Sabha member Naresh Bansal, Tehri MP Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah, former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt, cabinet minister Madan Kaushik, minister of state Dhan Singh Rawat, state BJP general secretary Ajeya Kumar, among others -- attended the meeting, which went on for over two hours.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)