TEAM HIMACHAL TAKES OATH
FIRST TIME CM Governor Acharya Devvrat administers the oath of office and secrecy to Thakur, who will turn 53 on January 6
SHIMLA: Jai Ram Thakur was sworn in as the 13th chief minister of Himachal Pradesh along with 11 cabinet ministers at a packed ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah at the Ridge here on Wednesday.
Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office and secrecy to Thakur, who will turn 53 on January 6. This will be his maiden term as chief minister.
The swearing-in ceremony saw the presence of Union ministers Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda and Nitin Gadkari, besides the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states along with more than 30,000 party supporters from across the state, most of who were in traditional attire.
The chief ministers of BJPruled states, including Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Trivendra Rawat (Uttarakhand), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), and Devender Fadnavis (Maharashtra), were joined by Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh, his UP and Bihar counterparts Keshav Prasad Maurya and Sushil Kumar Modi at the ceremony. Bihar health minister and party affairs in-charge for Himachal, Mangal Pandey, was present.
BJP veteran LK Advani was also present.
Five-time legislator Thakur, who rose through the ranks and is known for his humble, clean and low profile, took the oath in Hindi.
During the oath taking ceremony, he did not wear the trademark maroon flap cap of the BJP, which the former two-time BJP chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal usually wore. Dhumal was defeated by Rajinder Rana of the Congress from Sujanpur this time.
Thakur’s family members, including his 80-year-old widowed mother, who belongs to a remote village in Mandi district, attended the ceremony. “This is the victory of the common man,” Thakur’s wife Sadhna , who is doctor, said before the ceremony.
GENERATIONAL SHIFT
The chief minister and five cabinet ministers are below the age of 55. This indicates a generation shift in the party leadership.
The cabinet has six former ministers and an equal number of first-time ministers, a blend of experienced and new faces.
The others who took the oath are former cabinet ministers Mohinder Singh, Kishan Kapoor, Sarveen Chaudhary and Anil Sharma, former minister Ram Lal Markanday and new faces Suresh Bhardwaj, Vipin Singh Parmar, Virender Kanwar, Vikram Thakur, Gobind Thakur and Rajeev Sahjal.
Sarveen Chaudhary is the lone woman minister in the cabinet.
All ministers took the oath in Hindi, barring Bhardwaj and Gobind Thakur, who took the oath in Sanskrit. Senior legislators Rajeev Bindal, Narender Bragta and Ramesh Dhawala did not find a place in the cabinet. Former Congress chief minister Virbhadra Singh did not attend the ceremony.The BJP won a majority with 44 seats in the 68-member assembly last week.
RIDGE PACKED TO CAPACITY
This is for the third time that a swearing-in ceremony is being organised at the ecologically fragile Ridge. Dhumal took the oath there in 2008 followed by Virbhadra Singh. Before 2008, the oathtaking ceremony was held at the governor’s official residence, Barnes Court.Elaborate security arrangements were put in place with barricades erected at the Mall Road, inconveniencing local residents and tourists.
The Ridge, which is built a top a British-era water tank, is a vehicle-free zone and only fire tenders and ambulances are allowed on it.
THE JAMPACKED CEREMONY IN HIMACHAL CAPITAL ALSO SAW 11 MINISTERS TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE