Absence of governance, corruption cause of Cong loss: Khanduri

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Senior BJP leader Maj Gen (retd) BC Khanduri, who was head of the election affairs in Uttarakhand, today ascribed his party's good performance in the state to ''total abesence of governance and rampant corruption during the Congress rule.'' ''The results are not unexpected going by the mood of the people we gauged during the electioneering in the hill state,'' Maj Gen Khanduri told UNI when asked to comment on his party's victory which looked now certain in the state.

The BJP has established its lead in over 35 seats out of the 69 which went to polls this month. The Congress was trailing behind with a lead in just 11 seats, followed by the BSP in three.

The former Union Minister is one of the strong contenders for Chief Ministership of the hill state along with state BJP president PC Koshiari.

He said he saw two factors in BJP's good showing in the state.

First was the misrule of the Congress which had disillusioned even its die hard supporters and secondly the role of the BJP in the creation of the hill state.

''We simply concentrated on informing the masses how the Congress completely neglected the agenda of development in the state, and that has worked as you can see from the results of the elections,'' he said.

Replying to a question about the probability of his being selected for Chief Ministership of the state, Maj Gen Khanduri said he would not like to comment on the issue which was to be decided by the party leadership.

''Whoever becomes Chief Minister, the party's agenda for the state would remain the same--development, removal of corruption and good governance,'' he added.

UNI