12-member Dhami Cabinet takes oath

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 4

Pushkar Singh Dhami took oath as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in Dehradun today, becoming the third BJP leader to hold the post in the past four months and 11th since it attained statehood in November 2000. Dhami was administered the oath of office along with 11 ministers by Governor Baby Rani Maurya, two days after Garhwal MP Tirath Singh Rawat resigned from the post to avoid a “constitutional crisis” in the hill state.

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The ministers include Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Banshidhar Bhagat, Yashpal Arya, Bishan Singh Chuphal, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Ganesh Joshi, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya and Yatishwaranand.

Dhami has assumed charge barely a few months ahead of the Assembly elections due early next year and amid visible signs of reservation among senior leaders over his appointment. Sources said Maharaj, Uniyal, Harak Singh, Chuphal, Arya and senior leader Madan Kaushik were among those who expressed reservations regarding Dhami with the party high command. Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the senior ministers unhappy with the party’s decision to go with the 45-year-old Khatima legislator, they added.

Dhami, who paid courtesy calls on his predecessors Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat, also met Maharaj. He is understood to have persuaded the senior leader, whose name was among those doing the rounds until Saturday as probables for the CM’s post.

Maharaj was the first to leave the legislature party meeting on Saturday, even before Dhami’s election as its leader was formally announced by Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. However, reports of resentment or reservation were dismissed by senior leaders.

This apart, the young CM has inherited a pile of issues from his predecessors and has very less time to set things right. The challenges before him include a Covid-battered economy, suspended Char Dham yatra, fake Covid testing scam during Kumbh in Haridwar and ongoing agitation by priests of Gangotri and Yamunotri against the Devasthanam Board.

Grappling with all these issues and the political challenges of a resurgent Congress amid the growing clout of AAP, Dhami has another issue to address. Over the past few weeks, Uttarakhand has been trending on social media over demands to revive land laws restricting the transfer of land to persons from outside the state to “protect the eco-sensitive state and its cultural identity”. The demand has been revived amid Covid, which has triggered reverse-migration.