How Pushkar Dhami is set to return as Uttarakhand CM despite poll loss

He may have lost his own re-election bid from the Khatima constituency in the recent Uttarakhand assembly polls but Pushkar Singh Dhami will continue as the state’s chief minister.

The decision to give a second term to Dhami was endorsed unanimously at the BJP’s legislative party meeting in Dehradun, on March 21, ending the over-10-day suspense over who will lead the party’s newly elected government in the hill state.

On March 10, as results for the Uttarakhand assembly polls were announced, the BJP had returned to power for a second consecutive term, winning 47 of the state’s 70 assembly seats, but Dhami lost his re-election bid from Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district — a seat he had previously won in 2012 and 2017 — to the Congress’s Bhuvan Kapri by a margin of 6579 votes.

The defeat of the BJP’s sitting and perceived CM face had triggered intense lobbying within the party over the past 10 days with nearly a dozen MLAs and three MPs throwing their hat in the ring.

However, ultimately it was the writ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah that predictably ran large, say BJP insiders, as the 47 newly elected MLAs endorsed a fresh term for Dhami as CM. That Dhami also had support of the BJP’s ideological parent, the RSS, also helped ease his race for the CM’s chair.

Dhami had had lengthy discussions with Modi, Shah and BJP president JP Nadda on Uttarakhand government formation over the past week. Handpicked by the Modi-Shah combine to lead the state as CM in July last year after the party had changed two chief ministers — Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat — in quick succession, sources said Dhami had been assured by the BJP central leadership that despite his personal defeat from Khatima, he will continue in office.

BJP sources told The Federal that Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Meenakshi Lekhi, the two observers appointed by the party last week to carry out discussions with Uttarakhand BJP MLAs on the choice of CM and matters of government formation, had already briefed all lawmakers and leaders of the state unit that Dhami was the central leadership’s choice.

On March 21, before heading for the legislative party meeting, Singh and Lekhi had also had a round of discussions with Dhami, former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj and few other senior leaders at a posh hotel in Dehradun.

Sources said that the two central observers reiterated the central leadership’s choice at this meeting. Thereafter, Singh and Lekhi attended the legislative party meeting where Dhami’s name was formally adopted for the CM’s post with no dissent from any MLA.

Nishank and Anil Baluni — both sitting MPs now — who were lobbying for the post till last week had also been told before the legislative party meeting in Dehradun that continuity for Dhami had been endorsed by Modi and Shah.

A similar message had been passed on by Rajnath Singh to other aspirants, among them party MLAs such as Banshidhar Bhagat, Satpal Maharaj, Srinagar Dhan Singh Rawat, Madan Kaushik, Ganesh Joshi, Subodh Uniyal, Prem Chand Aggarwal and Rekha Arya.

Several of these leaders are likely to be accommodated in Dhami’s council of ministers with plum portfolios, said a senior Uttarakhand BJP leader.

Since Dhami is not presently a member of the assembly, he will need to contest and win a by-election within six months of being sworn-in as chief minister. At least six BJP legislators, including Champawat MLA Kailash Gahtodi and Kapkot MLA Suresh Gadiya, have offered to vacate their seat for Dhami. A final call on which seat Dhami will be fielded from will be taken later, said sources.

A confidant of former Uttarakhand CM and current Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the 46-year-old Dhami had earned the trust of Modi through his non-controversial demeanour and his ability to rise over factional conflicts within the state BJP.

Sources said Dhami’s success in “drastically improving” the perception of the BJP among the state’s voters after the party faced public’s disaffection over its quick attrition of the previous two CMs, their lacklustre performance and controversial policy decision, had also endeared him to the BJP’s central leadership and a large chunk of the party MLAs.

Sources said that by choosing Dhami, a Kumaoni leader from the Thakur community, the party will now move on to address regional, caste and community aspirations while finalising the state’s new council of ministers. Discussions on the cabinet formation are expected to begin early amid speculation that MLAs from the Garhwal region that sends 41 legislators to the assembly — 29 of them are presently with the BJP — may get a lion’s share of important portfolios. Dhami is likely to take oath as Uttarakhand CM on March 23. It is, however, unclear whether a new council of ministers will be sworn-in the same day or at a later date given the tough balancing act that Dhami and the BJP need to strike.