Newly-elected Uttarakhand MLAs to take oath today

After the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged victorious in the recently held Uttarakhand Assembly election, the newly elected MLAs will take their oath of office at a ceremony at the Vidhan Sabha in Dehradun at 9:30 am today.

Pro-tem Speaker in the Uttarakhand Assembly Bansidhar Bhagat and Governor of Uttarakhand, Lieutenant General (Retired) Gurmit Singh confirmed that the MLAs would take their oath today.

Speaking to ANI on March 20, Raj Bhavan Secretariat said that the swearing-in ceremony will take place at 9.30 am at Raj Bhavan. Uttarakhand BJP chief Madan Kaushik earlier informed that all newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly will take oath in the Vidhan Sabha tomorrow.

Kaushik also informed that the name for Uttarakhand Chief Minister will be decided after the Legislative Party meeting. "All newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly will take oath at 11 am in Vidhan Sabha, tomorrow," he said.

"The meeting of Legislative Party will be held in the evening. Thereafter, the Chief Minister’s name will be announced," Kaushik added.

Earlier on March 20, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Kaushik, and former Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in the national capital to discuss government formation.BJP President JP Nadda and party leaders BL Santhosh and Uttarakhand minister Satpal Maharaj were also present at Shah’s residence.

Meanwhile, Dhami said that the procedure for government formation is underway and the BJP central leadership will take a decision on the next leader of the legislature party in the state. "The procedure for government formation is underway...the BJP central leadership will take a decision (on CM face)," said Dhami, at Uttarakhand Bhawan in Delhi.

Notably, BJP MLA and former minister Rekha Arya has supported Dhami as the next Chief Minister.Several MLAs, including Ganesh Joshi and Arvind Pandey, have given their consent for the name of Dhami as the leader of the legislature party.

Till now six MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party have announced their willingness to vacate their Assembly seats to help Dhami get elected to the House. Dhami had lost to Congress candidate Bhuwan Chandra Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes. Dhami got a total of 41,598 votes with a vote share of 44.8 per cent as against Kapri who got 48,177 with a huge vote share of 51.89 per cent.

The BJP won the popular mandate for the second consecutive term in Uttarakhand, bagging 47 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

READ: BJP to name new Uttarakhand CM tomorrow after legislature party meet in Dehradun