BJP again picks Pushkar Singh Dhami as Uttarakhand CM

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 21

Ending the suspense, the BJP on Monday opted for Pushkar Singh Dhami as the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand despite him losing his own seat in the recent Assembly elections in which the party registered a massive victory winning 47 of the 70 constituencies.

The decision was made public by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, appointed an observer by the party to oversee the process along with union minister Meenakshi Lekhi, following a BJP legislature party meeting.

According to sources the central leadership, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, were in “complete agreement on Dhami being given another chance to ensure continuity in governance”. Though Dhami lost Khatima to Congress’ Bhuwan Chandra Kapri, the BJP managed to create history of sorts by reclaiming the hill state, “breaking the myth”, they argued, also pointing how he “chose to contest from Khatima despite knowing that certain internal forces were working against him”.

“He did not want to give a wrong message to voters before the elections and justified the central leadership’s confidence in him, helping the BJP win Uttarakhand again,” they said, adding that “Dhami was assured of continuing in his post by the PM on the same day he lost Khatima on March 10”.

Speaking to the media Rajnath Singh later said Dhami “left a good impression on people for the six months he was in power”.

“He (Dhami) had done a great work helping the party win the 2022 state assembly election. We are sure that Uttarakhand will scale new heights of development under the leadership of Pushkar Singh Dhami,” he added.

Later, Dhami met Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retd) to stake the claim to form the government.

He will be taking the oath on March 23. BJP’s state president Madan Kaushik said the swearing-in ceremony will take place on Wednesday.

The leadership’s decision is acceptable to all BJP MLAs, he also added.

Ever since March 10 (when the results were announced) Dhami held a series of meetings with central leaders, including PM Modi, Shah, party chief JP Nadda, state in charge Pralhad Joshi, and general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh.

Sources, in fact, admit that getting Dhami back in the chair was “not an easy decision”. He was given the charge of the state after two consecutive changes—Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat—last year. After his defeat, several names, including that of senior leaders like Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and senior leader Satpal Maharaj, started doing the rounds. The reaffirmation is also seen as a way to keep at bay the growing factionalism in the state unit. That, plus his RSS background (Dhami began with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS) helped. 

Besides, the sources say Dhami “managed to execute PM Modi’s vision of a double-engine government” to bring the situation around for the BJP. It was the first time in the history of the state that a party has come to power for a second term in a row. When he took over in July, the state was grappling with several issues like a battered economy, Covid, Char Dham priests agitating against a new regulatory board, etc.

Dhami will have to get elected to the state Assembly in the next six months to continue in the post. Several sitting MLAs have offered to vacate their seats in order to get Dhami elected to the Assembly. Also, this is also not the first time a CM will take the oath without winning the elections. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee faced a similar situation last year when she lost her Nandigram seat to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.

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