In a grand ceremony conducted here, Trivendra Singh Rawat was sworn in as the ninth chief minister of Uttarakhand, on Saturday, with the oath of office being administered by Governor K K Paul.
The swearing-in ceremony that was held at the Parade Ground, here, was attended by political stalwarts including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, BJP president Amit Shah, Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Uma Bharati, and Uttarakhand’s former Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
Seven ministers in the Rawat Cabinet and two Minsters of State also took the oath of office.
While atleast four more ministers are yet to be inducted in the newly-formed Rawat government, the current composition shows a balance of caste and the State’s two region’s – Garhwal and Kumaon.
While six minsters, including Chief Minister Rawat who took the oath of office on Saturday, are from the Garhwal region, four other ministers are from the Kumaon region.
Also, among the MLAs who were sworn in on Saturday, four are Rajputs, four are Brahmins and two are Dalits.
After government formation one of the foremost challenges for Mr Rawat would be to keep the 57 BJP MLAs entact. Since party leaders Prakash Pant and Satpal Maharaj were also top contenders for the post of chief minister, their supporters in the party are disappointed with the BJP’s decision of making Mr Rawat the chief minister. However, Mr Pant and Maharaj were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers in the new government.
Maharaj, a two-time Congress MP, had crossed over to the BJP before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls is an MLA from the Chaubattakhal seat, and Mr Pant, who was the first Speaker when the State was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2000 is the MLA from the Pithoragarh seat.
“Though the party chose Mr Rawat over the two [Maharaj and Pant], as a consolation they were accommodated in the Cabinet,” a senior BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, told The Hindu .
Of the 57 seats won by the BJP in the Uttarakhand Assembly, 11 belong to former Congress leaders who had crossed over to the BJP before the recent polls. Five of them were sworn in during the ceremony on Saturday.
The former Congress MLAs in the Cabinet also include Harak Singh Rawat and Subodh Uniyal who had rebelled against the Harish Rawat government, last year, and had caused a political instability that had brought the State under President’s Rule.
Two MLAs – Harak Singh Rawat and Yashpal Arya – who were Cabinet Ministers during the previous (Congress) government have been inducted in the newly formed Cabinet too.
While few BJP leaders said that the former Congress MLAs were “rewarded” for supporting the BJP, few others said that accommodating them in the Cabinet was a way to “avoid problems, if any, in future”.
