Who is Pushkar Singh Dhami? All you need to know about new Uttarakhand CM who lost polls

Pushkar Singh Dhami will be sworn is as the new Chief Minister today, i.e. March 23. of Uttarakhand after BJP's close fight with the Congress.

Pushkar Singh Dhami was on Monday elected as the chief minister face of Uttarakhand for second term after BJP's legislature meeting concluded.

Dhami under whose leadership the BJP had contested the February 14 Assembly polls in Uttarakhand is the frontrunner among around half a dozen names doing the rounds.

The party which went to polls with Dhami as its chief ministerial candidate won 47 of 70 Assembly seats.

Dhami had been brought in as a replacement for Tirath Singh Rawat towards the fag end of its tenure in July 2021 and his contribution to the party's good electoral performance cannot be overlooked, political analysts said.

Who is Pushkar Singh Dhami?

Born on 16th September 1975 in Khatima, is a member of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly from the Khatima constituency in Udham Singh Nagar district.

Pushkar Singh Dhami in politics:

The 45-year-old MLA from the Khatima constituency of the Udham Singh Nagar district has never held a ministerial position in the state cabinet. The two-time MLA has a strong sway among the youth as he remained the president of the BJP youth wing in the state and has worked in different positions in the RSS' students wing ABVP for many years. By profession, Pushkar Singh Dhami is an advocate.

He is also believed to be close to Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the present governor of Maharashtra, who also served as the chief minister of Uttarakhand for a very short stint. Pushkar Singh Dhami served as the officer on special duty when Koshyari was the CM. Dhami is also reportedly close to defence minister Rajnath Singh.

Soon after being elected as the leader of the legislature party on Saturday, Dhami thanked the party leadership for reposing faith in him and said that he will deal with the challenges lying ahead with everyone's cooperation.

Dhami's election was announced by central observer Narendra Singh Tomar.

Tirath Singh Rawat late Friday submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya. Rawat was a Lok Sabha member from Garhwal, and as per the rules, needed to be sworn in as an elected MLA within six months of taking over as the Chief Minister.

Rawat was supposed to get himself elected to the state Assembly before September 10 to remain in office which could not happen due to provision of Representation of the People Act, 1951, which says that bypolls cannot be held if the remainder of the term in house relation to the vacancy is less than a year.