Pushkar Singh Dhami will continue as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Monday, ending the 11-day suspense over who will become the state’s next CM.

The announcement was made after a legislative party meeting at the party’s office on Balbir Road in Dehradun. The meeting to elect the new CM had begun here around 5 pm and was attended by BJP’s central observers for Uttarakhand Rajnath Singh, Meenakshi Lekhi and the party’s poll incharge for the state, Pralhad Joshi.

“Pushkar Singh Dhami has been elected as the Leader of the Legislative Party. I congratulate him, I am confident that under his leadership Uttarakhand will make rapid progress,” Rajnath Singh told reporters.

The names of Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj, Shrinagar MLA Dhan Singh Rawat and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni were also doing the rounds for the top post. 

BJP had contested the February 14 Assembly polls in Uttarakhand under Dhami’s leadership.

The party registered a big win in Uttarakhand, getting 47 out of a total of seventy assembly seats in the state, the results of which were announced on March 10. 

Dhami lost in Khatima, a seat he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly polls, putting the party in a dilemma on the CM choice.

A section of BJP leaders, however, credited him for the party’s big win in the state Assembly polls and wanted him to continue as CM so that he gets a full five-year term to deliver on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of development for the state.

Dhami had been brought in as a replacement for Tirath Singh Rawat in July 2021.