Khatima lawmaker young Pushkar Dhami is the 11 th Uttarakhand CM

The lawmaker from Khatima, Pushkar Dhami will be the eleventh chief minister of Uttarakhand to be sworn it at Raj Bhawan today evening. There were earlier speculations about Uttarakhand ministers Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat and Chufal. The names of Satpal Maharaj and Dhan Singh Rawat were also doing rounds for next CM of Uttarakhand three months ago when Tirath Singh Rawat MP was air dropped by the party high command, despite his being the sitting MP from Pauri Garhwal, surprising all.

This time too these rumoured names failed. The name of Khatima lawmaker Pushkar Singh Dhami was unanimously decided after the party’s central observer, union Agriculture minister Narendra Tomar has spoken to each and every MLA of BJP separately at Beejapur Guest house in the afternoon at 12, followed by the lawmakers’ meeting at 3 PM onwards giving their unanimous consent for selecting and electing Pushkar Dhami from Khatima, Kumaon Uttarakhand as the next chief minister of Uttarakhand surprising one and all. Pushkar had been earlier the BJP’s Yuva Morcha chief of the state.

The central observer Narendra Tomar, along with Rajya Sabha MP Dushyant Gautam and Pundeshwari had reached the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun in the morning to decide the fate of the eleventh chief minister of Uttarakhand after the exit of the former CM Tirath Singh Rawat who had replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat who ruled the state for four long years. Dhami would be the third chief minister of Uttarakhand in just three months and 11 th CM during the last 21 years.

Till now, since November, 9, 2000 when state was carved out from Uttar Pradesh after more than 46 sacrifices and tremendous movement, there had been 7 chief ministers of Uttarakhand and Dhami being the eighth CM hailing from the Saffron party. Congress had three CMs viz Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Vijay Bahuguna and Harish Rawat. Only veteran Congress CM from Uttarakhand ND Tiwari who was four times CM of the largest state Uttar Pradesh earlier ruled the state for complete five years. The former BJP CMs during the last two decades were Dr. Nityanand Swamy, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, ( now governor Maharashtra) Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, ( twice) Trivendra Singh Rawat, Tirath Singh Rawat and Pushkar Singh Dhami in 2021. During today’s political development the name of former CM Trivendra Rawat also did rounds actively as the 11 th in addition to the names of Satpal Maharaj and Dhan Singh Rawat with large number of supporters waiting outside their respective residences in optimism with flowers n bouquets to greet them, but all in vain as an unexpected name of Pushkar Dhami has appeared all of a sudden surprising all. This time the high command has given priority to a new MLA from Khatima a chance to become CM of Uttarakhand from within the MLAs as previous two CMS have been from Pauri Garhwal.