Among four Uttarakhand CM front runners, three from Garhwal & one from Kumaon

Following the announcement of poll results, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Pralhad Joshi had briefed the central leadership about feedback received from the state unit on who would become next CM

Senior BJP leaders and contenders for the top post hold a meeting at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s home in New Delhi (Representational)

A day before newly elected BJP MLAs in Uttarakhand are scheduled to meet here to choose the next chief minister of the state, senior BJP leaders and contenders for the top post held a meeting at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s home in New Delhi.

BJP national president JP Nadda, and senior state leaders Pushkar Singh Dhami, who is the caretaker chief minister, former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and Satpal Maharaj were among those present at the meeting.

On March 10, following the announcement of the election results, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Union minister Pralhad Joshi had briefed the central leadership about the feedback received from the state unit on the question of who would become the next chief minister. Sources said the names of three state leaders and one central leader were doing the rounds within the party.

Pushkar Singh Dhami

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Though the ruling party won 47 seats in the 70-member Assembly, outgoing Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost his re-election bid, causing uncertainty about who would lead the state.

Dhami became the chief minister last July after the BJP government under his predecessors Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat faced a lot of criticism over its style of functioning. It is believed that Dhami, who is just a two-time MLA and a relatively inexperienced politician, was promoted to the top job because he is from Kumaon, and the BJP wanted to counter the dominance of the Congress and its leader Harish Rawat in the region.

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Born in Pithoragarh district in 1975, Dhami worked his way up the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates for 33 years. During his 10 years with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, he worked in the Awadh Prant (region) unit in Uttar Pradesh. He served as the president of the BJP’s Uttarakhand Yuva Morcha twice from 2002 to 2008, and before that was the Officer on Special Duty to then Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari from 2001 to 2002. Dhami, who is a law graduate in human resource management and industrial relations, also held the post of vice-chairman (with a state minister rank) of Uttarakhand’s urban monitoring committee.

Dhan Singh Rawat

The state party secretary has served as a minister in the Uttarakhand government, holding portfolios such as higher education, cooperatives, disaster management, dairy development, and protocols.

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In the 2022 Assembly elections, he managed to defeat state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal from the Srinagar seat by a margin of just 587 votes. That was his second straight victory in the state elections. In 2012, after delimitation, Talisain was made part of the Srinagar constituency and Godiyal managed to defeat Rawat. But the BJP leader bounced back five years later, riding high on a Narendra Modi wave.

Last year, Rawat landed in a controversy after he was purportedly caught saying in a viral video that the government was thinking of “using a phone application to control the intensity of rainfall”. His suggestion drew taunts from the Opposition. If the BJP wants to appoint an MLA from Garhwal as the chief minister, Rawat, who is from the Thakur community, may have a good shot at leading the state.

Satpal Maharaj

Satpal Maharaj, who heads the Manav Utthan Sewa Samiti and teaches meditation techniques, played a vital role in the formation of the state. The son of famous spiritual master Yogiraj Paramsant Shri Hans, he is a member of the BJP’s national executive and was the minister of PWD, tourism, culture, and irrigation in the outgoing Cabinet.

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Maharaj was earlier with the Congress and was even elected to Parliament, but he switched over to the BJP in 2014. In the Assembly polls three years later, this prominent Thakur leader from Garhwal is said to have played a crucial role in the BJP’s landslide victory in Garhwal as the party won 34 of 41 seats.

Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank

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The former Union minister is the only contender after Dhami to have served as the state’s chief minister, and possesses administrative experience that may tilt the balance in his favour.

Nishank, who is a Brahmin from Garhwal, has been active in the state in recent months but sources in the BJP pointed out that the party’s performance was not satisfactory in Haridwar which Nishank represents in the Lok Sabha. This may prove to be a drawback, according to the party insiders, along with the fact that the former CM does not have a good relationship with BJP state president Madan Kaushik.

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Another flaw in Nishank’s record is his failure to complete his chief ministerial tenure. He had been placed in charge of the state in 2009 in the aftermath of the BJP’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. But he managed to last two years as BJP MLAs succeeded in bringing back Nishank’s predecessor Major Gen (Retd) BC Khanduri just five months before the state polls.

But with some party sources suggesting there is a high possibility of the next chief minister being a Thakur or Brahmin from Garhwal, Nishank may yet be in with a chance.