A day after taking oath as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat on Thursday met his political mentor and State’s former CM, Gen (Retd) B C Khanduri and sought his blessings.
After the meeting, Mr. Rawat said Mr. Khanduri has been his idol and like a father.
“The General ‘sir’ is like my father. I have learnt a lot from him in politics,” Mr. Rawat said.
The new Chief Minister said he has reached this stage only due to what he learnt from Mr. Khanduri and imbibed his ideals.
Mr. Khanduri, however, interrupted him, saying “Imbibing ideals is fine but he has got a lot of flak from him”.
To this, the new Chief Minister replied, “I indeed have often been rapped but one gets rebuked only by a person who considers you one of his own. Kids often get chided.”
Expressing happiness over Mr. Rawat becoming the Chief Minister, Mr. Khanduri described the new CM as a “dedicated worker” and himself "lucky" that he got in touch with good people like Tirath Singh Rawat after joining politics from the Army.
“When I initially got into politics, I had to follow Tirath because everyone knew him and nobody knew me," he said.
Asked about Tirath Singh Rawat becoming the new State CM and its impact on the 2022 Aassembly elections, Mr. Khanduri said the BJP has its own character and leadership and expressed confidence that the result would be good.
“Tirath Singh is a worthy person. Look at his background also, he has been working for the organisation since childhood. There is no stain or accusation against him. People also like such leadership. I believe the result will be good,” said the former Chief Minister.
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