DEHRADUN: The voices of dissent against Uttarakhand chief minister-designate Pushkar Singh Dhami, which were noticed first on Saturday evening soon after his anointment, grew louder by Sunday morning.
Barely hours ahead of the oath-taking ceremony – scheduled at 5pm today at Raj Bhawan – senior BJP leaders spent most of their morning trying to pacify some ministers and MLAs, who apparently are not too pleased with 45-year-old Dhami’s selection for the top post.
Dhami, a two time MLA from Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district, has no previous experience of even being a minister and is now set to become the state’s youngest chief minister.
Sources said that senior ministers such as Satpal Maharaj, Yashpal Arya, Bishan Singh Chuphal, Subodh Uniyal and Harak Singh Rawat are particularly incensed and there is a strong possibility of them skipping the oath-taking ceremony.
Sources told TOI that a very senior Union minister had also called up some of these leaders to pacify them. The leaders however remained adamant on their stand on skipping the ceremony.
It has been learnt that some of the discontented ministers and legislators held a long meeting at Satpal Maharaj’s residence to chalk out their strategy.
Most of the discontented ministers are those who had left Congress and joined BJP in 2016.
The CM-designate Dhami also took on the task of pacifying the leaders and visited Satpal Maharaj’s residence in the Dalanwala area on Sunday afternoon and had a brief meeting with him. Prior to this, he met former CMs Trivendra Rawat and Tirath Rawat too.
Sources said that the picture would become clearer during the oath-taking ceremony. “If the party manages to convince the dissatisfied leaders, they may agree to take part in the oath-taking but if they don’t, it will mean further political developments are in the offing in the Himalayan state,” the source said.
View More | Source: Times of India