Pushkar Singh Dhami, a young two-term MLA, was on Saturday chosen as the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, making him the third person to helm the state in nearly four months.
The BJP Legislature Party elected 45-year-old Dhami as the successor of Tirath Singh Rawat, who quit as chief minister after 114 days in office expressing inability to meet the constitutional requirement to get elected to the state assembly. The Election Commission had deferred bypolls due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dhami and senior BJP leaders met Governor Baby Rani Maurya and informed her about the new legislature party leader. The new chief minister is scheduled to take the oath of office at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.
The change of guard in Uttarakhand comes barely seven months ahead of the assembly elections early next year. On March 10, Tirath Singh Rawat had replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat as chief minister following complaints against him by party leaders and MLAs.
The BJP leadership opted for an old RSS-ABVP hand, ignoring claims of leaders such as Satpal Maharaj, who had quit the Congress to join the BJP before the 2017 elections.
Dhami, a two-term MLA from Khatima, has been associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during his student days at the Lucknow University and later served as the president of the Uttarakhand unit of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha for two terms.
He also served as an Officer on Special Duty to the then Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari from 2001-02. It was Koshiyari, the current Maharashtra Governor, who encouraged Dhami to take to electoral politics.
Born in the Kanalichhina area in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh region, Dhami studied law and pursued higher studies in human resources management and industrial relations at the Lucknow University in the then undivided Uttar Pradesh.
Dhami first brush with politics was during his student days and later held several positions in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the ABVP.
He shifted to Uttarakhand politics after the formation of the state in 2000 and is known for his skills to mobilise the youth for social initiatives.
“I am thankful to the central leadership of the BJP for having chosen an ordinary party worker and the son of an ex-serviceman to serve the state,” Dhami told reporters in Dehradun soon after being elected as chief minister.
“There are challenges ahead. I will take everyone along and face them,” Dhami said.