Uttarakhand: BJP legislature party may select new CM on Monday; swearing-in likely on Tuesday

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which romped home in Uttarakhand with a two-third majority, is likely to hold its meeting of the legislature party to elect its new chief minister on Monday. The party has been blowing hot and cold after the election results (announced on March 10) as its CM pick Pushkar Singh Dhami lost from the Khatima seat while the party secured a majority in the 70-member-assembly by winning 47 seats.

While many MLAs have offered to resign for Dhami, there has been no decision over the CM face yet. Dhami was in Delhi earlier this week and met senior party leaders and it’s most likely that he will be repeated as the CM. If it happens, he will have to contest a by-election to get elected to the house within six months.

The BJP has made Rajnath Singh and Meenakshi Lekhi central observers for Uttarakhand and they will be reaching the state before the legislature party meeting. If all goes as planned, then the swearing-in ceremony may take place on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda in attendance among other senior party leaders.

While Dhami remains the frontrunner for the CM post, other leaders in the race are Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj, Shrinagar MLA Dhan Singh Rawat and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni. One of the reasons that the BJP may choose to stick with Dhami is that the saffron party has already drawn much flak for changing two chief ministers in quick succession during its last tenure when it replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat with Tirat Singh Rawat and Tirath with Dhami.

In case, if the BJP goes for a new face, it will have to again look to strike a caste and regional balance as not to give rise to dissents. As Ajay Bhatt, a Brahmin from Kumaon, has already been made a Union minister of state, a Thakur or a Rajput from Garhwal may be chosen for the chief minister’s post to strike the much-needed caste and regional balance. If that happens, then Satpal Maharaj or Dhan Singh Rawat who are prominent Thakur leaders from Garhwal may emerge as favourites.

The new names doing the rounds as probables for ministerial positions are those of Saurabh Bahuguna and Ritu Khanduri Bhushan. Saurabh Bahuguna who won from Sitarganj is former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son and Ritu Khanduri Bhushan who won from Kotdwar is the daughter of BJP veteran and former chief minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri.

(With PTI Inputs)