‘Nishank’ gets boisterous welcome at BJP HQ

“No division in BJP”
By Prabeer Sikdar
DEHRADUN, 25 June 2009: The entry of Uttarakhand’s new CM designate, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, at the State BJP Headquarters on Balbir Road today at around 3:00 p.m. had people falling over each other to greet him. After landing at the Sahastradhara helipad, he was straightway brought to the BJP HQs in a flower bedecked car.
Virtually cornered by supporters and electronic media crew, the BJP office bearers and policemen on duty, utterly failed in managing the crowd, some of whom were waiting at the HQ holding garlands and bouquets in their hands.Ironically, the moment ‘Nishank’ set foot in the compound, initially it was not him that the sloganeering crowd was concerned with. For a couple of minutes, the slogans of ‘Ganesh Joshi zindabad’ rent the air.
The slogan shouting crowd, after realising its mistake, then raised slogans in favour of ‘Nishank’ and also for the outgoing CM BC Khanduri.
By then, some of the excited press photographers, climbed onto the HQ building for that ‘perfect picture’ of Nishank, who was surrounded closely by his supporters near a flag pole in the premises. However, the constant pushing and shoving caught about a dozen people on the wrong foot and they fell down.
One enterprising lady, who had arrived without a garland or a bouquet for the CM designate, quickly collected a fallen garland.
“It is chaotic,” described an old man, who hails from Nishank’s constituency and had come to greet him on his big day.
Even as the electronic media crew members and BJP party workers jostled for a view of ‘Nishank’, a BJP office bearer shouted: ‘Nishank Ko Dabayoge Kya?’ At the same moment, a portly senior photographer fell over the iron chain fence of the garden.
Pushed to the side by the eager and excited crowd, a policeman came out after somebody stepped on his feet. He was seen tying his shoe laces. Three IPS officers, after escorting the CM designate inside the BJP HQ, successfully, had by then heaved a sigh of relief. Sweat had drenched their clothes from top to bottom.
In the ensuing melee during the first 25 minutes of his arrival, whatever he said got drowned in the empty slogans. For some of the electronic media crew, there was only ‘sound but no ‘byte’.

Once inside, the soft spoken ‘Nishank’ told media persons about his desire to realise Khanduri’s mission. “I want to see Uttarakhand emerge as an ideal state,” he said, claiming there ‘is no division within BJP’.
The new to be CM, then, along with other State BJP stalwarts, including Bachi Singh Rawat, BC Khanduri, Ganesh Joshi and other MLAs numbering more than a dozen, attended a closed door meeting for 1:30 hours.
Speaking to Garhwal Post JK Rawat, a retired teacher who hails from Nishank’s Thailsen Assembly constituency and had come to greet him, said that the new CM’s area still lacks proper road connectivity and drinking water.
“There is a Community Health Centre (CHC) in Thailisen block, but patients from here, still have to go to Pauri District HQ for X-rays,” he said, while hoping for good in the days ahead.
Ram Bharti, a social worker from Thailsen, said that education for girls ‘is a problem’. “For over a decade, the locals are demanding upgradation of the only Girls’ High School to Girls’ Inter College,” he disclosed, adding that with ‘Nishank’ at the helm, ‘we expect things to improve’.
Post the closed door meeting, Bachi Singh Rawat, State BJP President, said that the meeting was held in honour of ‘Nishank’.
Refusing to divulge much about the meeting, which according to unconfirmed report, was attended by only Khanduri’s camp followers, said that the state would make progress under ‘Nishank’. “There is no division in the BJP,” Rawat said, when asked to comment about the infighting in BJP.
http://www.garhwalpost.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=Dehradun&article=1403