Bharatiya Janata Party leader and interim CM of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami will take oath as the new Chief Minister of the state today. The swearing-in ceremony will take place at Dehradun’s Parade Ground at 3:30 pm. Dhami, who lost in the recent Uttarakhand assembly election from the Khatima constituency to Congress’ Bhuwan Chandra Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes, was elected leader of the BJP legislature party in Uttarakhand on Monday, paving the way for his taking over the reins of the state for a second time.
In view of his defeat in the elections, there were doubts about Dhami continuing as the CM of Uttarakhand for a second term. Few newly-elected BJP MLAs from the state had offered to vacate their seats for Dhami.
After Dhami’s defeat, names of 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 doing the rounds for the Uttarakhand CM post.
The BJP won the absolute majority in Uttarakhand by winning 47 seats out of a total of 70 seats in the state. With this, the BJP retained power in the hill state. Dhami now has the opportunity to serve a full tenure as the CM of Uttarakhand.
