Sunday, 04 July 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
A youth leader not expected even by the state leaders to be chosen for the top post in Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, who emerged as the
BJP’s choice for Uttarakhand chief minister on Saturday, takes over at a time when the party gears up for the 2022 assembly elections in the state early next year.
The 45-year-old MLA from Khatima for whom chief ministership is a career highpoint, simultaneously inherits a pile of problems from his predecessors with just a few months to try and set things right.
Be it a Covid-battered economy, a suspended Char Dham Yatra, a fake Covid testing scam during the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar or an ongoing agitation by the Teerth Purohits against
The Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board, Dhami has a number of challenges to tackle. However, by choosing him as Uttarakhand’s eleventh chief minister, the BJP has reposed faith in a young leader to take the party forward in the poll-bound state. The party has also addressed another issue by choosing a leader from the Kumaon region to address the issue of regional balance between the Garhwal and Kumaon regions.
The main challenge before Dhami lies in spurring the party to yet another victory in the state for a second consecutive term in office in 2022. Talking to journalists after being chosen as the legislature party leader, Dhami said that he will build on the foundation laid by his seniors and tackle various challenges including the multitudes who have suffered economically due to the Covid pandemic. Though faced with a tough task, Dhami sounded upbeat when shortly after being elected the new leader of the BJP legislature
party he thanked the party leadership for reposing faith in common party worker like him and giving him a significant responsibility like this.
Dhami has been representing the Khatima seat in Uttarakhand assembly for two consecutive terms since 2012. Khatima is in Udham
Singh Nagar district in the State’s Kumaon region. Born into a family of an ex-armyman at Kanalichina in the border district of Pithoragarh, Dhami made Khatima his “karmabhoomi”.
He is considered to be close to Maharashtra Governor and former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari who was his political mentor. Dhami is a post graduate with a degree in law and a diploma in public administration from Lucknow University.
