Dehradun, Mar 23 (PTI) Pushkar Singh Dhami offered prayers at the Tapkeshwar Mahadev temple on Wednesday morning hours ahead of being sworn-in as the 12th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.
Accompanied by Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi and others Dhami offered ‘jalabhishek’ at the Shiva temple located along the banks of the Tons river and prayed for the welfare and prosperity of the state.
He also paid obeisance at a Gurudwara at Race Course in the city.
Dhami is scheduled to take oath at around 2.30 pm at the Parade Ground here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda and a host of party leaders including the chief ministers of various BJP ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jairam Thakur.
Parade Ground is all decked up to welcome the dignitaries with three stages built on the ground and seating arrangements made for 20,000 people. The ceremony is being held on a grand scale to match the party’s big electoral victory in the state.
Dhami will be sworn in along with his cabinet in which some new faces are likely to be inducted. It will be Dhami’s second consecutive term in office as Chief Minister.
He had been brought in as a replacement for former chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat in July last year towards the fag end of the BJP government’s last tenure. The BJP had contested the February 14 assembly polls seeking a full five-year term for the state’s youngest CM.
Though losing his own seat of Khatima which he had been winning since the 2012 assembly polls, 46-year-old Dhami was credited for the BJP’s big win in the state assembly polls in which the party won 47 out of a total of 70 assembly seats.
Dhami had all along been projected by the party as its chief ministerial candidate.
