E-Paper
Himachal cabinet expansion today
Legislators Rakesh Pathania, Sukhram Chaudhary and Rajinder Garg to be ministers.
The state capital on Wednesday witnessed hectic political activity as chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, after completing his week-long home quarantine, met governor Bandaru Dattatreya to apprise him about cabinet expansion.
The CM, who completed his 30 months in office, will undertake his first cabinet expansion.
Three cabinet berths fell vacant after then food and civil supplies minister Kishan Kapoor was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kangra, while power minister Anil Sharma quit after the Congress nominated his son Ashray Sharma from the Mandi parliamentary seat against BJP’s sitting Lok Sabha member Ram Swaroop Sharma and health minister Bipin Singh Parmar was appointed speaker in place of Nahan legislator Rajeev Bindal who was named state unit chief in January.
Jai Ram had planned to expand his cabinet after the Dharamshala and Pacchad Lok Sabha by-elections last year, but the exercise was deferred due to bickering in the state BJP. After that, the coronavirus pandemic stalled these plans.
Nurpur legislator Rakesh Pathania will be inducted into the state cabinet on Thursday. He began his political career in 1991 and was the BJP Kisan Morcha’s Kangra president before becoming its state secretary and a member of the party’s state executive. He was elected to the assembly as a BJP nominee in 1998 and re-elected as an independent in 2007 before becoming MLA for the third time in December 2017. Pathania belongs to the Rajput community and has been vying for a cabinet berth since 2017. However, the party chose Bipin Singh Parmar, another Rajput leader.
Paonta Sahib MLA Sukhram Chaudhary, the leader from other backward classes from Sirmaur, is also going to hold a spot in the cabinet. Chaudhary was a junior engineer in the electricity board before joining politics and was elected to the Vidhan Sabha in 2003, 2007 and 2017. He was parliamentary secretary from 2009 to 2012.
The chief minister is also going to offer a cabinet berth to Rajinder Garg, a first-time MLA from Bilaspur. Garg is considered close to BJP national president JP Nadda.
Jai Ram had planned the cabinet expansion last week, but it was put off after he went into a week-long self-quarantine after a deputy secretary in CMO tested positive for Covid19.
Speculations about the cabinet expansion got credence after the administration had readied three rooms in the Ellerslie block of Himachal secretariat for the new ministers, while Raj Bhawan had changed sitting arrangements at Darbar Hall, which is used during ceremonies. The CM will hold a cabinet meeting on Thursday morning at the secretariat.
