Newly elected U'khand MLAs to take oath on March 21; CM face to be declared soon

New Delhi/ Dehradun | Jagran Politics Desk: All newly elected members of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly will take oath at 11 am on March 21 at the Vidhan Sabha, announced state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Madan Kaushik on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters, Kaushik said the name of the new Uttarakhand Chief Minister will also be decided after the Legislative Party meeting. However, the Legislative Party meeting, which was scheduled to be held on Sunday will now be conducted on March 21 only.

Kaushik's remarks come after Pushkar Singh Dhami, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', JP Nadda, BL Santhosh, and Satpal Maharaj met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi.

Following the meeting, Dhami said he is leaving for Dehradun, adding that the BJP top brass will decide over the next leader of the legislature party in Uttarakhand. "The procedure for government formation is underway... the BJP central leadership will take a decision (on CM face)," he said.

Reports suggest that several BJP MLAs, including Rekha Arya, Ganesh Joshi and Arvind Pandey, want Dhami to continue as the Chief Minister of the hill state. Six MLAs are also ready to vacate their seats to allow Dhami get elected to the state assembly, reported ANI.

The BJP had retained power in Uttarakhand for a historic second term after winning 47 seats in the 70-member legislative assembly of the state. However, Dhami had lost the polls from Khatima against Congress' Bhuwan Chandra Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes.

The 46-year-old 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, according to the data shared by the Election Commission of India (ECI).