Pushkar Singh Dhami takes oath as Uttarakhand CM for second term; Modi, Shah among attendees

Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday took oath as the 12th chief minister of Uttarakhand, retaining the top post for a record second consecutive term. The swearing-in ceremony at Dehradun’s Parade Ground was held on a grand scale to match the party’s big electoral victory in the state.

Dhami was sworn-in in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda and a host of party leaders including the chief ministers of various BJP ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jairam Thakur.

Eight ministers were sworn in along with Mr Dhami. Five of them – Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya, Ganesh Joshi – will be taking oath for the second consecutive term. There are three first-timers – Chandan Ram Das, Saurabh Bahuguna, Prem Chand Aggarwal.

Dhami’s name for the top post was announced by the party on Monday, 11 days after the BJP emerged victorious in the Assembly polls. The BJP’s dilemma on the choice of a chief minister for Uttarakhand was caused by Dhami’s loss in Khatima, a seat he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly polls.

Dhami was plucked out of obscurity by the BJP last July and made the Uttarakhand chief minister, with just months to go before the state elections. He also happened to be the third leader to occupy the CM’s post during 2021. 

Earlier in the year, Trivendra Singh Rawat had to make way for Tirath Singh Rawat. Dhami seemed to have justified the party’s confidence in him. 

The BJP won Uttarakhand again, the first time in the state’s 21-year history that a party has come to power for a second term in a row. But in his own Khatima constituency, Dhami lost by a slim margin of about 6,500 votes. 

At 45, he was the state’s youngest chief minister when he first took over in July. The state was then grappling with a series of problems and with elections just round the corner Dhami had little time to prove himself.

He began his political career in 1990 with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP and was the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha twice. He campaigned for reservation of jobs in industries for the local youth.