Uttarakhand: Protem Speaker, newly-elected MLAs sworn in; CM name likely to be announced in evening

Newly-elected MLAs of Uttarakhand were sworn in as members of the Legislative Assembly on Monday. Protem speaker Bansidhar Bhagat administered the oath of office and secrecy to the MLAs.

Dehradun | Uttarakhand's newly-elected MLAs swearing-in as members of the Legislative Assembly

MLAs administered the oath of office and secrecy by protem speaker, Bansidhar Bhagat. pic.twitter.com/QvPoB0Wxij

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 21, 2022

Ahead of the government formation in Uttarakhand, Governor Lt General (Retired) Gurmit Singh administered the oath of office to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bansidhar Bhagat as the Protem Speaker of state Legislative Assembly.

Meanwhile, the BJP is scheduled to hold a legislature party meeting in the evening to elect the leader who will also be the next chief minister of Uttarakhand.

Notably, BJP MLA and former minister Rekha Arya have supported Pushkar Singh Dhami as the next chief minister. Several MLAs including Ganesh Joshi and Arvind Pandey, too have come out in support of Dhami as the leader of the legislature party.

Till now six MLAs of the BJP have expressed willingness to vacate their Assembly seats to help Dhami get elected to the House. Dhami lost his seat of Khatima to Congress candidate Bhuwan Chandra Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes. He got a total of 41,598 votes with a vote share of 44.8 per cent as against Kapri who got 48,177 with a huge vote share of 51.89 per cent.

Other probable names for the top job include those of Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj, Shrinagar MLA Dhan Singh Rawat, former Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt.

All eyes on BJP legislature party meeting 

The meeting, which is slated to be attended by BJP's central observers for Uttarakhand — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi —will be held at the state party office on Balbir Road at 5 pm.

The BJP won the popular mandate for the second consecutive term in Uttarakhand, bagging 47 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

With input from agencies

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March 21, 2022 at 03:14PM