Who is Pushkar Singh Dhami? All you need to know about the next Uttarakhand CM
PremiumAt 45 years old, Dhami will be the youngest Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, and the third in the past four months
Pushkar Singh Dhami will take oath as the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. An unexpected choice, Dhami is the third appointment to the office within four months, less than a year before the state goes to election.
Dhami assumed the mantle after Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as Uttarakhand CM late, after holding the post for less than four months, on Friday night following a meeting with the upper echelon of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Uttarakhand legislative party elected Dhami as its leader today and he will take oath on Sunday.
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At 45 years old, Pushkar Singh Dhami will be the youngest Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. The title earlier was held by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank who assumed office at the age of 49 years.
Dhami currently is the MLA from Khatima constituency in Udham Nagar. This is his second consecutive term from the seat. He has not held any ministerial position in the state cabinet so far.
Dhami is reportedly close to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. He is also believed to be close to Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the present governor of Maharashtra and former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand for a brief period. Dhami had served as officer on special duty during Koshiyari's tenure.
A popular name in the state's student politics, Dhami has been long associated with BJP's youth wing in Uttarakhand. He started participating into youth politics in 1990. He was a member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), till 1999. He them became the chief of Uttarakhand unit of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and stayed on the post till 2008.
Dhami is a qualified lawyer, and holds a LLB degree from Lucknow University. According to his self-declared affidavit filed during the 2012 Uttarakhand assembly elections, Dhami had listed his profession to be that of a farmer, which he changed to advocate in his 2017 affidavit.
Coming into office, Dhami's current tenure as Uttarakhand CM will be a short one as the state is slated to go to polls in 2022. Hopefully he doesn't have to face the curse of short stints that BJP CMs had to suffer in the hilly state.
His predecessor Tirath Singh Rawat became CM in March this year after Trivendra Singh Rawat's exit in the face of strong dissent. The former, however, had to win a by-election to state assembly within six month to retain the post. However, there seemed to be increasing uncertainty over the Election Commission holding by-polls for two vacant seats amid a pandemic, with less than a year to go before the next assembly elections.
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