Pushkar Singh Dhami took oath as the 12th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in a ceremony organised at the historic Parade Ground in Dehradun on Wednesday afternoon. Along with him eight Cabinet Ministers took oath of office and secrecy.
The Governor of Uttarakhand, Lieutenant General (retd) Gurmit Singh, administered the oath to CM Dhami and his Cabinet Ministers.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, Chief Ministers of various BJP ruled States, senior leaders of the BJP and former CMs of Uttarakhand and other States.
In his Cabinet Dhami picked Satpal Maharaj, Prem Chand Agarwal, Ganesh Joshi, Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Rekha Arya, Chandan Ram Das and Saurabh Bahuguna as Ministers. Dhami dropped three senior Ministers Bishan Singh Chufal, Banshidhar Bhagat and Arvind Pandey from his last Cabinet. BJP State president Madan Kaushik was also included in the Cabinet. The Cabinet still has three vacancies left which can be filled later.
The ceremony started at 2.36 PM with the oath of office and secrecy by CM Dhami. The whole ceremony lasted for about thirty minutes. Thousands of BJP workers and the people from all parts of the State attended the ceremony braving the blazing afternoon sun.
Uttar Pradesh caretaker CM Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu and CM designate of Goa Pramod Sawant, former Rajasthan CM Vasundhra Raje, Central Ministers Sanjeev Baliyan, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ajay Bhatt, former CMs of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat, Vijay Bahuguna and Tirath Singh Rawat, national general secretary and Uttarakhand in-charge Dushyant Gautam and co in charge Rekha Verma attended the ceremony.
One of the key features of the swearing-in ceremony was the presence of a large number of Hindu saints. A special stage was set up for them and their presence lent a saffron colour and religious fervour to the ceremony. Before taking oath of office Dhami went up to the saints, showered petals on them and took their blessings.
Earlier, the arrival of Prime Minister Modi on the stage electrified the crowd. However maximum applause was reserved for Uttar Pradesh caretaker Chief Minister Yogi who sent the crowd into ruptures. The enthusiastic supporters of the BJP shouted slogans and clapped lustily when Modi and Yogi arrived on the stage.