Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expanded his Cabinet on Friday. The swearing-in ceremony for the new ministers was held at the Lok Bhavan. Madan Kaushik (Haridwar), Khajan Dass (Rajpur Road), Bharat Singh Chaudhary (Rudraprayag), Ram Singh Kaira (Bhimtal), and Pradip Batra (Roorkee) took an oath as the new Uttarakhand Cabinet ministers.
Who are the newly inducted Uttarakhand ministers?
In the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly elections, Madan Kaushik won the Haridwar constituency by defeating Congress candidate Satpal Brahamchari by 15,237 votes. Kaushik, the former state BJP chief, won the five consecutive Assembly polls from Haridwar in 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022.
BJP's Khajan Dass retained the Rajpur Road seat by defeating Congress candidate Rajkumar by 11,163 votes in the 2022 state elections. He won the seat for the first time in 2017. He represented the Dhanaulti seat in the state Assembly from 2007 to 2012. Bharat Singh Chaudhary also retained the Rudraprayag constituency by defeating Congress candidate Pradeep Prasad Thapliyal with a margin of 9,802 votes. He previously won the seat in the 2017 polls.
Ram Singh Kaira, another MLA who became the minister, won the Bhimtal seat in the 2022 elections by defeating Congress leader Dan Singh Bhandari with a margin of 9,844 votes. Kaira also won the constituency in 2017 for the first time. Pradip Batra, the newly inducted minister in the Dhami Cabinet, not only retained the Roorkee seat in 2022 by defeating Yashpal Rana of the Congress by 2,277 votes, but also completed a hat-trick of victories. He first won the seat in 2012 as a Congress candidate and successfully defended it in 2017 after joining the BJP.
CM Dhami congratulates new ministers
After five leaders took an oath as ministers following the Cabinet expansion, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami said, "First of all, I would like to congratulate all those respected individuals who have been given the responsibility of the Council of Ministers today. I extend my best wishes to all of them. All of them have been working for a long time in the political and social spheres. Along with them, we will contribute to fulfilling our Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a 'Viksit Bharat', and all these dignitaries will play a significant role in achieving that goal."
CM Dhami meets all new leaders before oath
Earlier in the day, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met BJP MLAs Khajan Dass (Rajpur Road), Madan Kaushik (Haridwar), Pradeep Batra (Roorkee), Bharat Chaudhary (Rudraprayag), and Ram Singh Kaira (Bhimtal), who took the oath of office at Raj Bhawan.
In the past, speculation about Cabinet expansion gained momentum in the state several times, but nothing ever materialised. When the BJP began its second term in Uttarakhand in 2022, Dhami took the oath of office along with eight ministers.
The Cabinet's strength came down to eight after the death of Social Welfare and Transport Minister Chandan Ramdas in April 2023. It further came down to seven last year after the resignation of Prem Chand Agarwal, who was in charge of Parliamentary Affairs and Finance.
In Uttarakhand, the maximum number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, is 12. With today's inclusion of five ministers, the state Cabinet, which was working with seven ministers, including CM Dhami, has now reached its maximum strength. The six other ministers are Satpal Maharaj, Ganesh Joshi, Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Rekha Arya, and Saurabh Bahuguna.
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