Politics Insight News Without Politics
(Pi Bureau)
Lucknow, 18 Mar
Following astounding victory of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent Uttarakhand assembly election, party strongman and former state BJP chief Trivendra Singh Rawat was today sworn in as the hill state’s new chief minister.
BJP had won 80 percent of the seats in Uttarakhand by securing 57 of the 70 assembly constituencies in the state. His close association with RSS and strong organisational skills probably tilted scales in his favour even as several names had been doing the rounds for the coveted post.
The swearing in ceremony was marked with the presence of BJP mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah. Governor K K Paul administered the oath of office to Rawat, who thus became the 5th CM of the state from BJP.
Senior party legislators, several of them Congress turncoats, have also been administered oath as cabinet ministers in the new regime viz. Harak Singh Rawat, Satpal Maharaj, Yashpal Arya, Madan Kaushik, Arvind Pandey, Subodh Uniyal and Prakash Pant.
57-yearl-old Rawat had defeated Congress’ Hira Singh Bisht in Doiwala constituency with a margin of about 25,000 votes, by clocking his third consecutive victory from the same seat since 2002.
Earlier, Rawat, who belongs to the Rajput community, had held ministerial portfolios in the previous BJP regimes led by B C Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
