New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS): Former Uttarakhand chief minister B.C. Khanduri will take over charge of the hill state again, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari announced Saturday.

Khanduri will replace Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', who had succeeded him in 2009. Khanduri had become chief minister in 2007 after leading the party back to power.

According to BJP sources, party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad along with state election incharge Rajnath Singh will go to Uttarakhand Sunday where BJP legislators will meet to formally elect a new leader after Nishank resigns.

The BJP's top leadership met Pokhriyal Saturday and asked him to step down in the wake of corruption charges against him.

Though sources said Pokhriyal was asked to step down over "allegations of corruption", Gadkari defended Nishank saying "there were no corruption charges against him".

The BJP parliamentary board met Sep 8 to discuss the need for a change in state leadership.

Sources said the party was not satisfied with Pokhriyal's performance and thought the alleged corruption cases against him could affect the BJP in the forthcoming assembly election.

Besides BJP president Nitin Gadkari, the Saturday meeting was attended by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan and Thawar Chand Gehlot.