Pushkar Singh Dhami has been elected as Uttarakhand’s new chief minister.

Pushkar Singh Dhami has been elected as Uttarakhand’s new chief minister.

Dhami, a two-term MLA, was elected as the new chief minister of the hilly state at a legislative party meeting of the BJP in Dehradun.

The polls were watched by central observers, including Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party national general secretary D Purandeswari. Dushyant Gautam, the BJP’s in-charge of Uttarakhand, was also present at the meeting.

For many years, the 45-year-old Khatima constituency MLA from the Udham Singh Nagar district has worked in various positions in the RSS’ students wing ABVP. He has also served as the president of the BJP youth wing in Uttarakhand for two terms.

Tirath Singh Rawat resigned to Governor Baby Rani Maurya late Friday. Rawat was a Lok Sabha member from Garhwal who, according to the rules, had to be sworn in as an elected MLA within six months of becoming Chief Minister.

Rawat was supposed to be elected to the state Assembly before September 10 in order to stay in office, but this was not possible due to a provision in the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which states that bypolls cannot be held if the remainder of the term in house in relation to the vacancy is less than a year.

Due to the Covid pandemic, the Election Commission has also decided not to hold any elections.

On March 10, Tirath Singh Rawat was sworn in as Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister, succeeding Trivendra Singh Rawat.