Suspense ends in Himachal, Jai Ram Thakur to be CM

SHIMLA: Suspense over Himachal Pradesh's new chief minister ended on Sunday afternoon with BJP giving the reins of the state to five-time MLA and former minister Jai Ram Thakur. The 52-year-old will be the 13th chief minister of the hill state. He will be sworn in on December 27 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Amid uncertainty within BJP following the defeat of its original CM-candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP's central observers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narender Tomar, along with the party's Himachal in-charge, Mangal Pandey, arrived in Shimla on Sunday morning and met newlyelected MLAs, leaders and MPs from the state.

"In the meeting, Prem Kumar Dhumal proposed Jai Ram Thakur's name as the leader of the BJP legislature party and senior leaders — Shanta Kumar, J P Nadda and Satinder Satti — seconded it," Tomar told reporters after the meeting at Hotel Peterhoff.

Later, a BJP delegation led by Thakur met governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan and staked claim to form the government.

In a first, neta from Mandi becomes CM

There are challenges before the new government and we are ready to face them," the chief minister-designate said. "I am thankful to the party leadership and people of the state for giving me this responsibility and I will make sincere efforts to fulfil the promises made to people during election," said Thakur.

This is the first time in the state's history that a leader from Mandi has become CM. If Kangra district with 15 of the 68 assembly seats forms the political heart of Himachal, then Mandi comes in second with 10 seats.

BJP had faced an internal rift while selecting a chief minister after Dhumal lost in Sujanpur along with a host of senior leaders. While Thakur was seen as the front-runner ever since the results were declared on December 18, many other names, including Union minister J P Nadda and Dhumal, did the rounds over the next few days.

Thakur and Dhumal had a closed-door meeting before the central observers arrived in Shimla on Thursday. They met at Dhumal's residence at Samirpur village in Hamirpur for about an hour.

But soon after, supporters of Dhumal raised slogans before the central observers demanding the CM's post for him. Jai Ram Thakur's supporters, too, did some sloganeering, exposing the party's fault line. On Saturday, however, Dhumal said he was not in the race and it was largely certain that Thakur would take over.

Coming from a humble background, Thakur represents a class of leaders who have worked their way up from the grassroots. Sources said his clean image, strong connect with RSS and ability to take warring factions of the party along played a major role in his selection.

Thakur, from Tandi village in Mandi district's Seraj assembly constituency, was elected as an MLA for the first time in 1998 from Chachiot in Mandi and was re-elected in 2003 and 2007 from the same seat. In 2012, he was elected from Seraj and was re-elected for the fifth time this year. Thakur, who has an MA in English literature, is married to Sadhna Singh, a doctor, and the couple has two daughters.