Current affairs

Third Chief Minister in seven months...Will BJP's choice fix the political crisis in Uttarakhand?

By alagu, 03 July, 2021
Uttarakhand, BJP, Politics

Constant Chief Minister is wanted in Uttarakhand as the hill state has been witnessing an unprecedented political crisis for several months, leaving the BJP in a lurch. The BJP ruling state had seen the replacement of two Chief Ministers in less than four months, triggering a political avalanche in a tiny but attractive state. The developments had suggested that something is wrong within the party's state unit and the Central ruling party is in an imperative state to fix the crisis as Uttarakhand is inching closer to the crucial assembly polls. 

Tirath Singh Rawat, who was the Chief Minister till Friday, had unfolded a dramatic political drama after he resigned from the post. Tirath was under constitutional obligation to get elected as an MLA to retain the reign. His resignation has come when the party's high command had made its mind that it is almost difficult to get him elected as an MLA. He had gone through dissents and furores within the party and he had begun losing his stronghold. 

Tirath had held the post of the Chief Minister for less than four months and he had handed over his resignation letter to Governor Baby Rani Maurya in the night hours of Friday, hours after returning from New Delhi after meeting with the BJP's top leadership. According to reports, Rawat had written to BJP's National President JP Nadda in which he expressed his desire to step down. 

As his resignation sparked a fresh wave of tensions in the state, which will be going for the assembly polls early next year, the BJP had immediately stepped on to dot up the crisis and to pick Tirath's successor, in its bid to give the constant Chief Minister for Uttarakhand, which has already been ailing from financial and health crises. A day after Tirath Singh Rawat's resignation, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had reached Uttarakhand to elect the new Chief Minister. 

Tomar is the party's observer in the state and he was tasked by the Central leadership to ensure the unanimous election of the new Chief Minister. Tomar had arrived at the BJP's state headquarters in Dehradun for the All-Party Legislative Meet. He along with the senior leaders had begun the drive of electing the new Chief Minister. Following a hectic discussion, the BJP had elected Pushkar Singh Dhami as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. 

According to reports, Dhami was elected as the leader of the legislature party and after having been appointed as the Chief Minister, Dhami had thanked the party's leadership for reposing faith in him and said that he will deal with the challenges that are lying ahead with everyone's co-operation. While addressing the reporters, Dhami said, "My party has appointed a common worker, son of an ex-serviceman, who was born in Pithoragarh to serve the state." 

He said, "We will work together for people's welfare. We accept the challenge of serving people with the help of others, in a short time span." Dhami is the two-time sitting MLA from the Khatima constituency in the Udham Singh Nagar district. He is considered to be observing close ties with Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the sitting Governor of Maharashtra and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister. 

Koshyari was the one who pushed Dhami into the election in 2012 post which he had successfully got elected from the Khatima constituency. Nine years after entering the electoral politics, Dhami is all to become the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. The reports say that BJP's choice of Dhami had become a big surprise to the party leaders and he will be the third Chief Minister of the state in a duration of 116 days. 

Dhami's predecessor Tirath Singh Rawat had become the Chief Minister on March 10 this year after the party's leadership had decided to remove Trivendra Singh Rawat from the post of Chief Minister. Now, Tirath has vacated the office, by becoming the only Chief Minister in the state who could not become an MLA. However, the appointment of Dhami has come with no surety that he would decorate the Chief Minister's seat with stability and BJP has to clear the cloud of crisis to face the assembly polls in the state. 

As Dhami is the third Chief Minister of Uttarakhand this year after Tirath Singh Rawat and Trivendra Singh Rawat, the political observers say that the biggest ordeals for Dhami would be dealing with the state's deteriorating financial condition where more employees aren't getting paid regularly and fixing the political crisis in the state to stand before the voters. One of the challenges for Dhami is to set things straight in the party by bringing the state unit under one direction after allaying the intra-party furores and dissents as most of the top leaders are keen on promoting their own strongholds. The latest reports say that Dhami will be taking oath as the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on Sunday. 

 

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