E-Paper
Pushkar Singh Dhami starts 2nd term as Uttarakhand CM; inducts 8 ministers
Uttarakhnad chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has retained five cabinet ministers and inducted three fresh faces to his team.
DEHRADUN: Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday took oath as chief minister of Uttarakhand with eight cabinet ministers at the swearing-in ceremony held at state capital Dehradun’s Parade Grounds in the presence of top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP scripted history in the state elections held in February - the results were declared on March 10 - when the party won 47 of the assembly’s 60 seats to return to power. The BJP’s back-to-back victory was a first in Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000.
To be sure, Dhami did lose his Khatima seat in the elections but in an unusual move, the BJP decided to back him for a second term as chief minister. Dhami, who was considered a surprise choice when the party first picked him last year after changing its chief ministers twice in months, had succeeded in providing a stable and controversy-free government in the hill state.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, eight ministers were also administered the oath by Uttarakhand governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh. Five of them - Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya, Ganesh Joshi and Subodh Uniyal - were part of the last cabinet as well. The other three were new faces, Chandan Ramdas, Premchand Agarwal and Saurabh Bahuguna. Premchand Aggarwal, who was the speaker in the previous assembly, took his oath in Sanskrit.
The government will start working to realise PM Narendra Modi’s vision that the next decade will be the decade of Uttarakhand. “We will start working on fulfilling the promises we have made in our vision document. We will also start working on making Uttarakhand the best state by 2025, when the state will complete its 25 years. We will work with Centre for the development of the state”, Dhami said in his first remarks after taking oath.
Dhami said the cabinet’s first meeting will be held on Thursday.
PM Modi later also tweeted his congratulations to Dhami.
“Many congratulations to Pushkar Dhami ji on taking oath as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. In the last 5 years, Devbhoomi has made rapid progress in every field. I am sure that you and all your ministers will give further impetus to it, setting a new paradigm of development according to the aspirations of the people,” PM Modi said.
Before the ceremony, Dhami and other BJP leaders offered prayers at Tapkeshwar Temple in Dehradun and the Race Course Road gurudwara. He also received blessings from scores of saints who had come for the ceremony.
Apart from the top leadership of the BJP such as union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, BJP president JP Nadda, chief ministers and BJP leaders from other states were also present. Among them were Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Haryana’s Manohar Lal, Goa’s Pramod Sawant, Gujarat’s Bhupendra Patel, Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
People from various sections of the society ranging from prominent people from various domains, intellectuals, artists, industrialists, saints, party workers attended the ceremony. Saints blew conches and folk artists performed traditional dances to the tune of drum beats. Many women workers and leaders from Garhwal and Kumaon had come in traditional dresses.
