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Vijay Bahuguna is Cong choice for U’khand CM
SMA Kazmi/TNS

Dehradun, March 12
After marathon consultations for over 150 hours among senior Congress leaders, Vijay Bahuguna, the party’s Tehri Garhwal MP, was named the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. The former Mumbai High Court judge will replace first cousin Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) as Chief Minister.

After hectic lobbying amongst various aspirants for the top post in the state for nearly a week, Vijay Bahuguna, 65, was chosen by the party high command. He is the son of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna and brother of UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Born on February 28, 1947 at Allahabad, Vijay Bahuguna studied law at Allahabad University and went on to practice in the Allahabad High Court. He attempted to contest elections as a Congress candidate from his fathers’ home constituency of Pauri Garhwal, but could not get a nomination in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls.

Later, he was elevated to the Bench and remained a judge of the Mumbai High Court. He resigned from the Bench during the Uttarakhand statehood agitation in 1994 to join full-time politics.

Vijay Bahuguna contested his first election from the Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat in 1996, but was defeated by Satpal Maharaj of Congress (Tewari). He shifted to the Tehri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat in the 1998 as his first cousin Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) was in the fray from Pauri Garhwal. But he lost to Maharaja Manvendra Shah of the BJP. He again lost to Shah in the 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

Manvendra Shah, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Tehri state and considered a demi-god in the hills died in 2007. In the bypoll held due to his death, Vijay Bahuguna scored his first electoral win from the Tehri Lok Sabha seat in 2007 by defeating Manujenda Shah, son of the deceased Maharaja.

He again won the seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. During ND Tewari’s regime, he was chairman of the state Planning Commission from 2002 to 2007.

Married to Sudha Bahuguna, he has two sons and a daughter.