Dehradun: Tirath Singh Rawat, BJP's Lok Sabha MP from Garhwal, on Wednesday took oath as the new chief minister of Uttarakhand. He replaces Trivendra Singh Rawat who had stepped down from the post on Tuesday. Governor Baby Rani Mourya administered the oath of office and secretary to the new chief minister at the Raj Bhavan. PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated him on Twitter.
Fifth CM from Poudi district
Rawat joined the politics under the banner of BJP from an RSS background. He was associated with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during his student days. As an active member of RSS, he joined mainstream politics with the BJP. Interestingly, the Pauri region has given five chief ministers to the state. Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Vijay Bahuguna, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Teerath Singh Rawat are all from the Paudi district.
Coronation of Teerath Singh Rawat
BJP legislature party meeting was held on Wednesday morning to finalise the name of the new chief minister in the party office. Initially, the name of union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ came as the favourite in the race for the post. Next in line were Ajay Bhatt and Dhan Singh Rawat. Suddenly, the name of Teerath Singh Rawat, the MP from Garhwal, was announced as the new chief minister.
Former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat announced the name of Teerath Singh Rawat as the final name for the chief minister’s post and congratulated him saying under his leadership Uttarakhand will achieve all-round development. Those present in the meeting, including party observer Raman Singh, state BJP president Banshidhar Bhagat and other MLAs congratulated Teerath Singh Rawat.
Teerath became emotional
Rawat became very emotional after his name was announced for the CM’s post. He said, “The party has put its trust on a petty worker from a village. Never in my imagination had I thought I will reach such a position. I will try my best to earn the trust of the people and will carry forward the development work done by Trivendra Singh Rawat in the last four years. All the Prime Minister’s dream projects in Uttarakhand will be completed.”
Discussion on cabinet
The discussion on the Teerath cabinet will take place on Thursday following which names of the ministers and their portfolios will be finalised and submitted to the governor.
Changes in ministry and bureaucracy possible
Suspense prevails over the name of ministers in the Teerath Singh cabinet. It is certain that there will be some new faces in Teerath’s team. This is so because being the election year, new persons will be appointed to fill up the three vacant positions.
The other big speculation is about major changes in the bureaucracy. It is believed that Teerath Singh Rawat will give preference to a new team of top officials over the present team.
Bet on the Salt seat
If political observer Bhagirat Sharma is to be believed, the BJP high command decided in favour of Teerath Singh Rawat keeping in mind the by-election to the Salt assembly seat. The MLA from Salt seat Surendra Singh Jeena died of COVID-19 in a hospital in Delhi in November 2020.
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