Pushkar Dhami takes oath as Uttarakhand CM; 8 ministers also sworn in

PTI

Dehradun, March 23

Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday took oath as the Uttarakhand chief minister during a ceremony held at Parade Ground here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Apart from Dhami, eight ministers were also administered the oath by Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retd).

This is 46-year-old Dhami's second consecutive stint as chief minister.

Speculation over the CM's post in Uttarakhand had ended on Monday when the BJP declared that the former Khatima MLA would lead the state government.

Dhami, under whose leadership the party had won the just-concluded Assembly polls, had lost the election from Khatima, the constituency he had been representing since 2012.

Dhami needs to be elected to the state Assembly within six months to continue as chief minister.

The BJP MLAs who took oath as state ministers were Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Premchand Agarwal, Rekha Arya, Ganesh Joshi, Chandan Ram Das and Saurabh Bahuguna.

Except former CM Vijay Bahuguna's son Saurabh Bahuguna, Bageshwar MLA Chandan Ram Das and Rishikesh legislator Premchand Agarwal, all other leaders were part of the previous Dhami-led cabinet.

Agarwal was the Speaker in the previous Assembly.

Apart from PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, BJP president JP Nadda and chief ministers of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Assam attended the swearing-in ceremony.

The BJP had won 47 of the 70 Assembly seats in the election.