New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made up its mind to wait for the ‘auspicious’ period to start after Holashtak to make a final announcement on who would be the next chief minister of Uttarakhand. Though acting chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who was given the reins of the state only last July, was the natural choice, his loss in the assembly election from Khatima has just added a touch of uncertainty to the process.Incidentally, the BJP appears to be following the Hindu practice of not doing any auspicious work during the period of Holashtak, which begins eight days before Holi. As such while the result of the Uttarakhand polls was announced on March 10, the party has still not announced any name for the CM’s post. The BJP had won 47 seats in the 70-member House while the Congress had bagged 19.While several senior party leaders – from the state and former central leaders – have thrown their hat in the ring, the dice appears loaded in favour of Dhami. He was in New Delhi on March 15 and is learnt to have met Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J.P. Nadda, BJP organisation secretary B.L. Santosh and Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Anil Baluni.The Uttarakhand BJP president also visited Delhi along with Dhami and met several senior party leaders.Following the meeting, the BJP announced that a decision was taken by its parliamentary board to appoint defence minister Rajnath Singh as observer and minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi as the co-observer for Uttarakhand.It is expected that they would participate in the legislative party meeting of the BJP on March 19, where a decision would be taken on the next chief minister. The name of the next CM is expected to be announced the following day.It is pertinent to note here that after Dhami’s loss in the assembly poll, over half-a-dozen legislators from the state had offered to resign from their seats so that he could contest the by-election. Apart from Dhami, the names of several other party leaders – including those of former Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, and former state cabinet minister Dhan Singh Rawat and Satpal Maharaj – are doing the rounds.More trouble for Congress?Meanwhile, the electoral outcome in the state has not augured well for the Congress on several counts. Following Sonia Gandhi’s decision to remove all the state unit chiefs in the five states which went to polls recently, the head of the Uttarakhand unit Ganesh Godiyal submitted his resignation.In the meantime, a war of words also started between several prominent leaders of Congress in Uttarakhand. As former chief minister and Congress campaign committee chairperson Harish Rawat lost his election from Lalkuan, leader of opposition Pritam Singh took a dig at him saying people should not fight from constituencies where they have not worked for five years.As many took his comments to be directed at Rawat, the latter responded through a Facebook post by saying that he never wanted to contest any election and only wanted to campaign across the state. But, he said, the Screening Committee asked him to contest as leaders felt it would otherwise send a wrong message.Rawat says he was forced to contest from LalkuanRawat also denied that he wanted to contest from Lalkuan, saying his preference was to stand from Ramnagar.This time, he said, the party first decided to field him from Ramnagar but then changed its mind and asked him to contest from Lalkuan, from where he lost to Mohan Singh Bisht of the BJP.Incidentally, Rawat has never won an election during the regular assembly polls so far. In 2014, following the party’s win, he had won the by-election from Dharchula. Apart from that, he lost from Haridwar Rural and Kichha in 2017 and Lalkuan this year.Rawat has also contested nine Lok Sabha elections since 1980 and was elected four times – thrice from Almora and once from Haridwar.