A day after his departure from the Congress Party, Manish Khanduri, son of ex-CM Major Gen BC Khanduri, has officially aligned himself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The formal induction ceremony took place in Dehradun, where Manish joined BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and state election in-charge Dushyant Kumar. The timing of Manish’s allegiance shift is interesting, as BJP has yet to announce its candidates for the Pauri and Haridwar Lok Sabha constituencies. With the Khanduri family enjoying significant goodwill in the area, there is speculation that Manish may be a strong contender for the Pauri ticket. However, after joining the party, Manish denied that he was seeking a ticket and stated that he had joined BJP as a simple worker without any conditions. He expressed gratitude towards the party for the opportunities it had provided his family and praised the leadership of Narendra Modi. Born in 1968, Manish, a former journalist and head of Facebook’s news partnerships division, ventured into politics before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.