Dehradun Mar 23 PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again won hearts on Wednesday by wearing an Uttarakhandi cap to the swearing-in of Pushkar Singh Dhami as the chief minister of the stateDhami began his second term with a ceremony at which eight other members of his new cabinet were also sworn inAs Modi appeared on the stage wearing the black cap with the Uttarakhands state flower Brahma Kamal embossed on it he was greeted with loud cheers by the audienceModi had worn the cap to many of his poll rallies during the campaigning for the state assembly polls The lone woman minister in Dhamis cabinet Rekha Arya also caught everyones attention as she came to the ceremony dressed in a traditional Kumaoni attire and adorning a large nose ringFormer assembly speaker Premchand Aggarwal who made his debut as a minister on Wednesday stood out as he took his oath in Sanskrit PTI ALM RHL

New Delhi Mar 23 PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated Pushkar Singh Dhami on taking oath as Uttarakhand chief minister and expressed confidence that the new government will establish new paradigm of development in line with peoples aspirationsThe state has progressed rapidly on all parameters in the last five years he said in a tweetDhami on Wednesday took oath as Uttarakhand chief minister during a ceremony held at Dehraduns Parade Ground in the presence of Modi and many senior leaders of the partyApart from Dhami eight ministers were also administered the oath by Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen retd Gurmit SinghThis is 46-year-old Dhamis second consecutive stint as the chief minister PTI KR KR TDS TDS

Dehradun Mar 23 PTI Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday took oath as the Uttrakhand chief minister during a ceremony held at Parade Ground in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi This is 46-year-old Dhamis second consecutive stint as the chief minister Dhami and his eight ministers were administered the oath by Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen retd Gurmit Singh Speculation over the CMs post in Uttarakhand had ended on Monday when the BJP declared that the former Khatima MLA will lead the state government Dhami under whose leadership the party had contested the just-concluded Assembly polls had lost the elections 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 had won 47 of the 70 Assembly seats in the elections the results of which were declared on March 10 PTI ALM ALM RDK RDK

Dehradun Mar 22 PTI Pushkar Singh Dhami who will be sworn as Uttarakhand chief minister on Wednesday has said that he will provide a transparent government and fulfil the BJPs all pre-poll commitments including bringing a uniform civil codeDhami will continue as the Uttarakhand chief minister the BJP said on Monday ending the 11-day suspense over itThe BJPs dilemma on the choice of a chief minister was caused by Dhamis loss in Khatima a seat he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly pollsIn his first comments after his unanimous election as the leader of Uttarakhand BJP legislative party on Monday Dhami said We will fulfil all the commitments that we made to people ahead of the polls The uniform civil code is an important one among them and we will fulfil it too Shortly before campaigning for the assembly polls in Uttarakhand came to an end Dhami had promised to constitute a high-powered committee comprising legal experts senior citizens and intellectuals to draft the codeDhami thanked the people for believing in the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi He also expressed his gratitude to the BJPs central leadership for reposing faith in an ordinary party worker like him once againI thank the people for believing in the prime ministers vision and giving the BJP a big victory I also thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi the home minister party president J P Nadda and Rajnath Singh who was the partys central observer for Uttarakhand for showing confidence in an ordinary worker and the son of a soldier like me Dhami told reportersWe will give a transparent government and fulfil the commitments we have made to people The prime minister has given us his vision for Uttarakhands development and said the decade belongs to the state We will work in accordance with his vision and make Uttarakhand a leading state when it celebrates the silver jubilee of its existence in 2025 he said PTI ALM ALM NSD NSD

New Delhi Mar 21 PTI With Pushkar Singh Dhami to be the Uttarakhand chief minister again despite losing his own seat the current central leadership of the BJP has opted for stability by continuing with its handpicked leader in the state that has seen frequent change at the helm It is also a break from the past as on similar occasions the BJP had earlier preferred to elect a sitting MLA as its chief minister This is the first time the BJP has gone ahead with someone to lead the government in the state even after the leader lost his own assembly seat Pushkar Singh Dhami who was appointed as CM in July last year and was the third chief minister of Uttarakhand in four months led the party to a record second straight term in the hill state with the BJP winning 47 seats out of 70 It was his ability to check infighting in the state unit which has six former chief ministers as well as many heavyweights who switched from the Congress and rally the party to take on Congress that has gone in his favour BJP insiders said Though 46-year-old Dhami lost his own seat of Khatima many MLAs including independents have offered to vacate their seats for him According to constitutional norms Dhami will have to get elected to the state assembly within six months of assuming office His loss had put the BJP in a quandary but after hectic parleys and long discussions of its top brass with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the party preferred continuity over change Dhamis reappointment is a message that the party is looking for a stable government in the run-up to the 2024 general elections party sources said The party has shown faith in the young generation to lead the state and realise the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Uttarakhand said Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank a former chief minister and ex-Union minister who was present in the legislature party meeting that elected Dhami In the 2017 assembly elections of Himachal Pradesh the BJPs chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal lost his assembly seat but the party won the assembly polls At that time the party chose a sitting MLA rather than Dhumal as the CM Similarly in the same year in Goa polls the party came second with 13 MLAs but it formed the government with the support of several small parties The BJP chose sitting MLA Pramod Sawant over its sitting chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar who had lost his assembly seat There have also been occasions such as in the 2014 Jharkhand assembly polls where the BJP chose a sitting MLA Raghubar Das as its chief minister over its prominent leader Arjun Munda who had lost his assembly seat However a senior leader in the party said the situation in Himachal Pradesh Goa and Uttarakhand was different from each other In the case of Himachal the party chose a sitting MLA as it was looking for the next generation of leadership because Dhumal was already in his seventies Whereas in Goa the BJP had to take support from other parties for forming the government and had to keep their preferences in mind the leader said PTI JTR RT RT

Dehradun Mar 21 PTI Pushkar Singh Dhami will continue as the Uttarakhand chief minister with the BJP ending the suspense over the post on Monday 11 days after returning to power for the second consecutive term in the state The swearing-in ceremony of 45-year-old Dhami will be held on March 23 The BJPs dilemma on the choice of a chief minister for Uttarakhand was caused by Dhamis loss in Khatima a seat he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly polls Partys central observer and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced Dhamis name after a brief meeting of the BJP legislative party here The meeting was attended by Union ministers Meenakshi Lekhi and Prahlad Joshi While Lekhi was present there as a central observer Joshi was the partys poll incharge for the state Making the announcement soon after the meeting at the party office here Singh said he congratulates Dhami on being elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party The BJP has reposed faith in Dhami once again for the post of the chief minister as he knows well how to run a government the defence minister said There was no name other than Dhami and all MLAs unanimously supported him he said Soon after being elected the leader of the BJP legislative party Dhami thanked people of the state for voting the BJP to power for a second consecutive term The states development will be given a fillip and Prime Minister Narendra Modis grand vision for the development of Uttarakhand will be turned into a reality he said Uttarakhand will be made a leading state over the next 10 years he said The BJP had won 47 of the 70 seats in the Assembly polls the results of which were announced on March 10 PTI ALM RDK

Dehradun Mar 21 PTI Pushkar Singh Dhami will continue as the Uttarakhand chief minister said the BJP on Monday ending the 11-day suspense over it The BJP legislative party meeting to elect the new chief minister of Uttarakhand had begun here around 5 pm It was attended by BJPs central observers for Uttarakhand Rajnath Singh Meenakshi Lekhi and the partys poll incharge for the state Pralhad Joshi Dhami under whose leadership the BJP had contested the February 14 Assembly polls was the frontrunner for the post The BJPs dilemma on the choice of a chief minister for Uttarakhand was caused by Dhamis loss in Khatima a seat he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly polls The party had won 47 of the 70 seats in the Assembly polls the results of which were announced on March 10 PTI ALM RDK RDK

Dehradun Mar 21 PTI Before the Uttarakhand assembly polls Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had compared Pushkar Singh Dhami to cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni Dhami he said was a good finisher suggesting that he will get the BJP the runs it needed to win the election While making the cricketing analogy Rajnath Singh reportedly said Dhami was working relentlessly as the CM and needed also to play a test match On Monday the Bharatiya Janata Party picked him for the CMs post again this time for the longer version of the game It was a difficult decision as Dhami had failed to win his own seat even as the party scored big in the hill state 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 CMs post during 2021 Earlier in the year Trivendra Singh Rawat had to make way for Tirath Singh Rawat Dhami seemed to have justified the partys confidence in him The BJP won Uttarakhand again the first time in the states 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 6500 votes At 45 he was the states 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 The states economy was battered by Covid the Char Dham priests were agitating against a new regulatory board and a massive Covid testing scam had hit the headlines earlier Like other BJP chief ministers Dhami styled himself as the one who executed Prime Minister Narendra Modis grand vision for the states development through a double-engine government Dhami is often regarded as a protg of Maharashtra Governor and former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari whom he served as an Officer on Special Duty OSD and an adviser 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 Dhamis father retired as a subedar in Army He was born in Pithoragarhs Tundi village after the family shifted there from its ancestral village Harkhola When he was in class 5 they moved to Khatima which was to become Dhamis karmabhoomi later He won the assembly polls from there twice He graduated from Lucknow University in Human Resource Management Industrial Relations and also has a degree in law PTI ALM ASH ASH

Dehradun Dec 26 PTI Putting to rest speculation about his resignation Uttarakhand Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat on Sunday said Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is his younger brother who has always stood by him through thick and thinIn a video message Rawat also said he prays that the BJP will return to power in the state with full majority after next years assembly elections under Dhamis leadershipThe video came after Rawat held a six-hour meeting with Dhami at the latters residence on Saturday night The two had dinner togetherSpeculation about Rawats resignation began doing rounds on Friday after he walked out of a cabinet meeting in a huffSources said Rawat left the meeting as he was angry that a proposal for a medical college in Kotdwar his constituency was not being cleared by the cabinetOn Saturday BJP MLA Umesh Sharma Kau who had been tasked with dissuading Rawat said the ministers grievance had been addressed and no one was going anywhereIn the video Rawat said Pushkar bhai is my younger brother who has always stood by me through thick and thin I give him my blessings as an elder brother I pray that under his leadership the BJP comes to power again in the state with full majority Dhami is working honestly for the people and the remote hilly areas of the state in a non-partisan manner he saidIn him the state has for the first time got a chief minister whose heart is full of sympathy for the poor the youth and women the minister addedBefore meeting Rawat on Saturday Dhami had said the ministers grievance was a family matter and it would be resolved by sitting togetherDhami has accepted Rawats proposal for a medical college in Kotdwar and agreed to release the first instalment of Rs 20 crore for the project on Monday PTI ALM DIV DIV

New Delhi Dec 24 PTI With the Congress appearing a divided house in poll-bound Uttarakhand the BJP is confident of retaining power in the hill state as the partys central leaders feel that the appointment of a young Pushkar Singh Dhami as chief minister has helped it counter the negative publicity of changing CM twice within a few months Union minister and the BJPs poll incharge for the state Pralhad Joshi has already made it clear that the party will contest the elections under Dhamis leadership and that he will again take up the top job once the party comes to power again in 2022 The BJPs central leaders have been heaping praises on Dhami with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh comparing his performance with former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhonis relentless batting in T-20 matches and seeking a full five-year term for him Dhami is doing a relentless batting like Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a 20-20 match and deserves a full-length five-year test match chance Singh has recently said in one of his rallies in Uttarakhand When contacted BJP general secretary and incharge of the state Dushyant Gautam said It is very clear that the party will contest elections under the leadership of Dhami In a short span of time he has taken various measures for expediting the pace of development in the state Gautam further said the party has given a young chief minister to a young state whereas the Congress is a divided house and witnessing infighting over its face for the assembly elections due early next year Another senior leader of the party said Dhamis deft handling of the political situation especially after the changing of chief minister twice within a few months and his effective administration have brought the party in a strong position Dhamis diligent handling of politics and coordination with senior leaders have brought back the BJP in a strong contention to form the government again the leader said in Delhi The 45-year-old Dhami became the youngest chief minister of the state in July replacing Tirath Singh Rawat who resigned within four months of taking charge from Trivendra Singh Rawat There are broadly two centres of politics in Uttarakhand -- Kumaon and Garhwal -- and Dhami frequently visited both regions during his tenure of about six months to maintain a balance party leaders said Many party leaders have already made it clear that he will be the partys chief ministerial candidate and his views on selection of candidates would also be given due importance Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address a rally in Haldwani later this week PTI JTR SMN