After newly elected MLAs met in Dehradun, Pushkar Singh Dhami was picked as the leader of the legislative party. He now has a six-month deadline to win an Assembly bypoll
Rajnath Singh congratulates Pushkar Singh Dhami after newly elected BJP MLAs choose him as their leader. Dhami will take oath as the 11th chief minister of Uttarakhand on Wednesday. PTI
The only downer for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Uttarakhand Assembly election, where it won a majority with by bagging 47 out of 70 seats, was that its chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had lost his own seat. What followed was 11 days of deliberations and speculations, which have now been put to rest. The BJP finally announced on Monday that Dhami will return as the chief minister of Uttarakhand.
He will take oath as the 11th CM on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the ceremony along with senior party leaders. But why did BJP pick a losing candidate for the top post in the hill state?
Though Dhami lost his seat in Khatima, he helmed the election campaign which ensured that party won a record second straight term in Uttarakhand. His work as CM has been largely appreciated. The decision to retain him is seen as a recognition of the 46-year-old leader’s commitment to the party.
Monday’s announcement came after a legislature meeting was held at the party office in Dehradun. It was attended by new elected BJP MLAs and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and senior leader Meenakshi Lekhi, the BJP’s central observers in the state.
“Pushkar Singh Dhami has been elected as the Leader of the Legislative Party. I congratulate him, I am confident that under his leadership Uttarakhand will make rapid progress” Singh told reporters in Dehradun.
The rise of the “accidental CM”
Dhami was often referred to as the “accidental CM” when he replaced Tirath Singh Rawat in 2021. Rawat stepped down from his post citing “constitutional crisis”, after he failed to get elected to the Uttarakhand Assembly six months after he was sworn-in on 10 March 2021.
Now Dhami faces a similar test. He will have contest and be elected to the Assembly by winning bypoll within a six-month deadline after an MLA resigns for their seat. Only then can he continue as the chief minister of the state.
Dhami, a Thakur leader from Kumaon, started his first term as chief minister last July. A two-time MLA, he was selected by the party leadership, as the BJP wanted to focus on Kumaon, a Congress-dominant region before the 2022 state Assembly elections.
A CM with a clean image
Dhami is the youngest CM of Uttarakhand. Being a former chief of the youth wing, he shares a good rapport with the party’s young cadres. The BJP believes that Dhami’s clean image had a big role to play in fighting the anti-incumbency in the state.
Plus, what the state needed was stability after it saw three chief ministerial changes in four months last year. Picking Dhami was also an attempt to contain any factional divide in the Uttarakhand unit of the party, reports NDTV.
There were reportedly three other leaders in the fray for the CM’s post — former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and senior leader Satpal Maharaj. However, Modi is said to have been in favour of going with Dhami along with the RSS.
The Uttarakhand leader has been associated with the Sangh for 33 years. His started his foray into politics in Uttar Pradesh, where he worked as a member of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. From 2002 to 2008, he worked for BJP’s Uttarakhand Yuva Morcha and served as officer to special duty to Bhagat Singh Koshyari during his tenure as CM in 2001-2002.
Dhami was first elected as an MLA from Khatima in 2012 and went on to retain the seat in 2017. This year, Dhami lost his Khatima seat to Congress’ Bhuwan Chandra Kapri, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi. But that has not stopped the BJP from putting their weight behind the Kumaon leader. He enjoys support within the party as well, with six MLAs offering vacate their seats for him, according to The Indian Express.
Dhami’s election as a legislative party leader also sets the tone for government formation in Uttar Pradesh. The state’s former deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya lost his Assembly poll seat from Sirathu. He still is an MLC. With Dhami being asked to continue, there are chances that Maurya might find a position in the new UP government.
What the BJP wants right now is to ensure stability within all state units of the party and put on a strong front, as it readies for the 2024 general election.
With inputs from agencies
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