Himachal Pradesh gets a new Thakur

SHIMLA: With Seraj MLA Jai Ram Thakur taking oath as the 13th chief minister of

Himachal Pradesh

at the historic Ridge Maidan in

Shimla

on Wednesday, a new era has begun in the hill state’s politics. Thakur will be leading a pack of BJP’s second rung leadership with many of the senior leaders having lost their seat in the recently concluded election.

To witness the new government taking shape, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah and party patriarch L K Advani were present at the swearing-in along with Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-controlled states. The ceremony saw a massive gathering of people as BJP supporters from different parts of Himachal Pradesh arrived in Shimla to witness their party coming back to power after five years.

Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath to Thakur in Hindi amid a loud cheer from crowd. Eleven ministers were also administered oath. Sarveen Chaudhary from Shahpur assembly constituency was the only woman minister in the council. Suresh Bhardwaj and Govind Singh Thakur chose to break from tradition and took oath in Sanskrit. So far, oaths have been administered in either Hindi or English.

More than half the cabinet is made up of first-time ministers, including Suresh Bhardwaj, Vipin Singh Parmar, Birender Kanwar, Bikram Singh Jaswan, Govind Singh Thakur and Dr Rajiv Saizal. It is also a more youthful cabinet with many of them in their early 50’s. While Thakur himself is 52 years old, at least seven ministers are below 55 years. Kasauli MLA Dr Rajiv Saizal in the youngest at 46 followed by Govind Singh Thakur of Manali at 49.

The new cabinet has four ministers from Kangra district and two from Mandi while Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Sirmaur district has no representation.

Thakur was nowhere in the race to become chief minister at the time of campaigning with BJP announcing former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as the CM candidate. The spotlight fell on Thakur and Union health minister J P Nadda on December 18 when the results were declared and most of BJP’s top leaders had lost even as the party recorded a thumping with with 44 of the 68 seats. Thakur was given the top post as he is not only a five-time MLA but has been a minister in the last Dhumal government and has held important positions in BJP’s state unit as well.