Pushkar Singh Dhami will be the new chief minister of Uttarakhand following his election on Saturday as the leader of the BJP legislature party in the hill state where assembly polls are due next year.
The 45-year-old will be the youngest chief minister of the state and replaces Tirath Singh Rawat, who resigned on Friday night within four months of taking charge from Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Dhami will be sworn in on Sunday, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters after a legislature party meeting at the state BJP headquarters where he was a central observer.
The name of Mr Dhami, considered close to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, was declared after the 57 Uttarakhand BJP MLAs met at the party headquarters in capital Dehradun. The 45-year-old is a two-time legislator representing the Khatima constituency in the state’s Kumaon region. He was an Officer on Special Duty to former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari.
Mr. Dhami, 45, has been associated with the BJP since he entered student politics and has twice been head of the Uttarakhand’s Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP. Working his way up the party hierarchy in the State, he has been State general secretary and party vice-president.
He holds a post graduate degree in management and public administration from Lucknow University, and has been closely associated with former chief minister and current Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
While he hasn’t held any administrative or ministerial position in the State government, the BJP is hoping that a youthful chief minister with a clean slate could help it wipe out some of the mistakes made by it in the State, which will swear-in a third chief minister in seven months.
“Pushkar Dhami is a second term MLA from Khatima, in Udham Singh Nagar and his constituency borders Nepal, and he is from Pithoragarh. He has been at the helm of several agitations by farmers against then Congress led governments and is considered to be very close to former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari,” said a senior party leader.
Mr. Tomar, after the conclusion of the legislature party meet, said that no other name had been proposed at the meeting and Mr. Dhami’s election had been unanimous. Former chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat was also present at the meet.
