NEW DELHI: With the blessing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership, its MP Tirath Singh Rawat (56) from Pauri Garhwal was on Wednesday sworn in as the new chief minister of Uttarakhand, hours after the BJP legislature party unanimously elected him to replace Trivendra Singh Rawat (60).
The change of the chief minister just a year ahead of the Assembly elections in the state also sent out a signal from the leadership that performance of the three other party chief ministers of Karnataka, Harayana and Goa is also under review in view of the complaints against them.
The BJP sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unhappy with the performance of some chief ministers. They said the party will review the performance of the three chief ministers after the five Assembly elections are over in April.
Trivendra Singh Rawat, the eighth CM of the hill state, carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, had got on the nerves of the leadership by taking arbitrary decisions and getting involved in cases of corruption.
Sources said the axe may fall soon on Manohar Lal Khattar (66), who is the chief minister of Haryana for the second term. The Prime Minister is angry with him for his failure to tackle the farmers of Haryana protesting in bulk, alongside the Punjab farmers, against the controversial farm bills. Though the Assembly elections in Haryana are due in only 2024, the party thinks Khattar has lost support in the villages and the party cannot win another election under his leadership.
Goa Assembly elections are due only the next year and hence the BJP leadership may go for a change of the chief minister who is more effective than present incumbent Dr Pramod Sawant (47), who had to be brought in to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Manohar Parrikar. The BJP sources in the party headquarters here said the feedback on Sawant from Goa is not good, but the exercise to judge his performance may take place only in April after the current Assembly elections are over.
The sources said Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have already sounded Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa that age is not in his favour and so he should groom a successor at the earliest to give him two years before the state goes in for Assembly elections.
