Thursday, 06 MARCH 2025 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Amid demand for the resignation of senior cabinet minister Prem Chand Aggarwal for alleged use of abusive language during the recent budget session of Vidhan Sabha, speculations regarding a reshuffle in the Pushkar Singh Dhami cabinet and its expansion have gained momentum. The statement of president of the Uttarakhand BJP Mahendra Bhatt added more traction to the speculations when on Tuesday he stated that the expansion of Dhami cabinet is on the cards. He added that the central leadership of BJP will take a decision on the fate of cabinet minister Agarwal.
Three positions in the cabinet have been vacant ever since Dhami took over the CM in his second stint in March 2022. After the death of Minister Chandan Ram Dass in April 2023 the number of vacancies in the Dhami cabinet increased to four.
It is learnt that the CM Dhami and the BJP leadership is unhappy at the performance of some ministers of Dhami cabinet.
The BJP leadership can remove the ministers which according to it have not performed well and have attracted controversies. The performance of the party candidates in the strongholds of the ministers in the recent elections of urban local bodies will also be a factor in this exercise.
The political observers opine that the central leadership of BJP would take a final decision on the cabinet expansion, reshuffle and its timing. They point out that the central leadership could also allow Dhami to drop a couple of controversial ministers.
The BJP leadership will also have to strike regional and caste balance in the cabinet reshuffle and expansion exercise.
At present there are only two ministers (Rekha Arya and Saurabh Bahuguna) from the Kumaon region in the cabinet. Similarly as many as seven districts including Haridwar, Nainital and Chamoli are unrepresented in the cabinet. At present the Pauri (Satpal Maharaj and Dhan Singh Rawat) and Dehradun (Prem Chand Agarwal and Ganesh Joshi) are represented by two ministers while Champawat is represented by CM Dhami, Udham Singh Nagar by Saurabh Bahuguna, Tehri by Subodh Uniyal and Almora by Rekha Arya in the cabinet.
