Dehradun: Pushkar Singh Dhami today took oath as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand at Dehradun’s Parade Ground. At the event Prime Minister Narendra Modi Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, and other BJP leaders including Yogi Adityanath, Manohar Lal Khattar were also present.
Dhami was administered oath by the Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh. As CM this is Dhami’s second term.
Along with Dhami eight Cabinet Ministers took oath. Five of them – Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya and Ganesh Joshi – were part of the previous Dhami-led cabinet.
Three new faces are introduced in his cabinet today – Chandan Ram Das, Saurabh Bahuguna and Premchand Aggarwal.
On Monday BJP had announced Dhami as the leader of the legislature party in Uttarakhand. The legislative party meeting was headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi.
Several names apart from Dhami, including former union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni, MLA Dhan Singh Rawat and Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj were being considered for the post of Chief Minister.
Dhami had lost in Khatima which was his own seat, which he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly polls. Dhami had lost to Congress candidate Bhuwan Chandra Kapri from Khatima by a margin of 6,579 votes.
In the 70 Member Assembly BJP won 47 seats. With this, the BJP has become the first party ever in Uttarakhand’s 21-year-old history to return to power in consecutive elections.
Dhami needs to be elected to the state Assembly within six months to continue as the Chief Minister.
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