BJP MLA from Khatima, Pushkar Singh Dhami, was on Saturday elected Leader of the State BJP Legislature Party to be the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Dhami will be the third CM of the State after Tirath Singh Rawat, who replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat this March.

After his swearing-in, scheduled for Sunday evening, Dhami will join the long list of Uttarakhand CMs who were not able to complete their tenure as elections for the State Assembly are just months away, by February-March, 2022. Dhami is a two-term MLA and had served as an OSD to former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. He is also considered to be close to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Ever since Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in November 2000, only one Chief Minister, N. D. Tiwari of the Congress, has completed his five-year term in office. All others have been forced to vacate office before time.

Although the Congress, too, changed chief ministers — Vijay Bahuguna was removed and Harish Rawat was appointed CM — in the previous term of the State Assembly, it underlined the “instability” in the BJP. “This party had three CMs in its tenure. Even in its previous terms, it has had a record of switching CMs — Nityanand Swamy, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and the Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri again,” said a statement released by Congress national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Meanwhile, the BJP clarified that Rawat, who is Lok Sabha MP from Pauri Garhwal, had to be elected to the State Assembly within six months of his swearing-in that took place in March. That effectively meant that before September 10, a by-election had to be conducted.

The BJP’s State unit chief Madan Kaushik said that the by-election could have been held but because of the Covid-19 restrictions and the deadline approaching fast, the only alternative was to appoint a CM from among the elected MLAs.

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