New Delhi: BJP veteran and former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, who transitioned from a successful military career to politics and played an instrumental role in executing the Golden Quadrilateral Project, died on Tuesday after prolonged illness. He was 91.
He was undergoing treatment at a Dehradun hospital. Born on 1 October 1934 in Dehradun in the present-day Uttarakhand, and a nephew of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, Khanduri had a distinguished three-decade career in the armed forces that culminated in him being conferred with the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) in 1982.
In 1991, the former Corps of Engineers officer, Lt Gen (Retd) Khanduri made a remarkable transition, venturing into politics. He contested the 1991 Lok Sabha elections from the Garhwal constituency as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, and emerged victorious.But the former army officer could not retain the seat in the 1996 polls, losing to the Congress’s Satpal Maharaj. But, he subsequently won the seat four more times: 1998,1999, 2004 and 2014.It was not only his political victories, but his stringent emphasis on discipline, integrity and effective governance that catapulted him to become one of the icons of Uttarakhand politics and a dependable BJP leader.Khanduri’s most significant governmental contribution was the successful execution of the much celebrated Golden Quadrilateral project as the minister for road transport and highways in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government.
