Pushkar Singh
Dhami took oath as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on Wednesday and retained his position after the Bharatiya Janta Party won the recent Assembly elections in the state. The ceremony was at the Parade Ground, Dehradun.

Dhami was groomed by Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh before coming into mainstream politics. After almost three
decades of his association with RSS as a volunteer, the ideological guide of
BJP, he ascended to the top position of the Uttarakhand state assembly.

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Dhami started
his political career as a worker of the Sangh’s student wing, Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He had worked as an ABVP leader between 1990 and
1999 while studying at the Lucknow University before the state of Uttarakhand
was formed. Dhami’s first official assignment came in 2002 when he was appointed by the state’s second chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, as his officer on
special duty (OSD).

In 2002, as BJP
lost the first state elections, he became the first president of Uttarakhand
BJP’s Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) for two consecutive terms from
2002-2008. Even during his ABVP and BJYM tenures, Dhami worked as a regular RSS
volunteer in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.    

Also Read: Who is Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand’s new Chief Minister?

He was first
elected to the state assembly in 2012. In 2017, he defeated Bhuwan Kapri of the
Congress, who is considered close to the Gandhi family, and a heavyweight
politician locally.

In the 2022 assembly
elections, Dhami contested the Khatima assembly seat in the Kumaon
region of the state but he lost to Bhuwan Chandra Kapri of Congress.

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In a surprise
move, on Thursday, the 46-year-old was appointed CM of Uttarakhand by the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party was forced to choose a new chief
minister in just four months after a “constitutional crisis” pushed Tirath
Singh Rawat to quit.

Last week, Dhami
was summoned to Delhi by the BJP leadership. He was apprised about the decision of
the party by BJP president JP Nadda. He also met Union Home Minister and senior
BJP leader Amit Shah.

Also Read: Election results 2022: List of BJP CM face in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur

Dhami is a
well-respected politician among his peers. His main challenge will be to run
the government with little administrative experience and cut down the menace of the short tenure of chief ministers.

“None of the
nearly 57 MLAs present in the legislative meeting opposed his candidature when
it was revealed by Union minister and central observer Narendra Singh Tomar,” a senior party leader, who didn’t wish to be named, was quoted as saying by The Print.