New Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat Inducts 11 MLAs in His Cabinet

Three days after being sworn in as the tenth chief minister of Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat Friday inducted 11 legislators in his Cabinet. The oath taking ceremony took place at 5pm.

The newly inducted ministers include previous state party president Banshidhar Bhagat, Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Yashpal Arya, Dhan Singh Rawat, Bishan Singh Chufal, Arvind Pandey, Ganesh Joshi, Rekha Arya, Swami Yatishwarananda.

Tirath Singh Rawat was sworn-in as the Uttarakhand chief minister on Wednesday after the BJP leadership removed Trivendra Singh Rawat amid growing discontent against his leadership. Governor Baby Rani Maurya administered the oath of office to him alone at a simple function held at the Raj Bhawan. In the 70-member Uttarakhand assembly, the ruling BJP has 56 members.

The BJP on Friday appointed MLA Madan Kaushik as its Uttarakhand state president, replacing Banshidhar Bhagat who may be inducted as a minister in the government headed by Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat. Kaushik is a fourth-term MLA from Haridwar constituency, and is one of the senior most legislators of the party in the hilly state.

With the party sticking to its choice of a Rajput chief minister in the state, it has again gone for a Brahmin face to head the organisation there. Rajputs and Brahmins are the two most populous castes in Uttarakhand which will go for assembly polls early next year.