Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday took oath as the new chief minister of Uttarakhand, ANI reported.
BJP MLAs Harak Singh Rawat, Satpal Maharaj, Bansidhar Bhagat and Yashpal Arya were sworn in as ministers.
Dhami, who is 45 years old, is the youngest chief minister of Uttarakhand, PTI reported. After the swearing-in, he received the Guard of Honour at the Bijapur Safe House in Dehradun.
“I am younger in age. Everyone is experienced,” he told ANI after being sworn in. “There are difficulties but resuming tourism and Char Dham Yatra in the state is absolutely necessary for us. I will try my best to meet the expectations of the party [BJP], which has chosen me to serve the people of Uttarakhand.”
Dhami reportedly conducted his first Cabinet meeting at 8 pm, according to the news agency.
On Saturday, the BJP Legislative Party had appointed Dhami for the chief ministerial post. He is the eleventh chief minister of Uttarakhand, and the third one in the current BJP government.
The BJP elected Dhami to the top post after Tirath Singh Rawat resigned on Friday.
Even as Rawat cited legal reasons for his resignation, his decision did not come without a share of political drama.
Rawat had returned to Dehradun just hours before submitting his resignation on Friday. For the past three days, he was in Delhi where he met BJP President JP Nadda twice and Home Minister Amit Shah once. This was his third visit to Delhi in a month amid uncertainties over his stint as the chief minister.
Reports of his resignation started emerging early on Friday evening. They suggested that the BJP had asked him to quit, even as there was no official word on the matter from Rawat or the party.
Around 9 pm on Friday, Rawat held a press conference. It was widely speculated that he would announce his resignation at the briefing. However, he did not mention anything on the matter and instead listed out the achievements of his government.
A couple of hours later, he first handed his resignation to Nadda and then met Governor Baby Rani Maurya.
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