Team Tirath Singh assumes charge
Four new faces in the 11-member council of ministers; Rekha Arya lone woman minister in council
DEHRADUN: Eleven ministers, including four new faces, on Friday took oath at the Governor House here as newly appointed chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat expanded his council of ministers.
Four new faces are Vishen Singh Chuphal, Bansidhar Bhagat, Ganesh Joshi and Swami Yatishwaranand. The remaining others Subodh Uniyal, Satpal Maharaj, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya, Harak Singh Rawat and Yashpal Arya were also ministers in the previous cabinet.
Only Madan Kaushik, who was appointed as BJP state president on Friday, was not inducted in the cabinet.
Among the new faces, Bhagat, who is BJP MLA from Kaladhungi, was the BJP state president before Kaushik.
He is likely to be the deputy chief minister of the state, a position that would be for the first time in history of 20 years of the state’s formation.
According to party insiders, he had been given the prominent position in government as a “compensation for the party state president post”.
Among the other prominent new face in the cabinet, Chuphal’s inclusion had been an attempt by party to pacify him as it was him who had expressed his resentment against the working of previous CM Trivendra Singh Rawat before the central leadership.
An MLA from Didihat constituency, he had also reportedly written a letter to the party central leadership during the recently concluded budget session in the state assembly in Gairsain along with 13 other party MLAs threatening to tender their resignation if Trivendra Singh Rawat is not replaced.
It was this incident only which reportedly triggered the crisis in the BJP.
Another new face, Haridwar rural MLA Yatishwaranand is believed to have been rewarded for his feat of defeating former CM Harish Rawat of the Congress in the 2017 state assembly elections. His inclusion is also important with the fact that the party had to have a representation from Haridwar after Kaushik who also hails from Haridwar region was made the new party state president.
The fourth new face is the three-time BJP MLA from Mussoorie, Ganesh Joshi. Considered a “public leader” in his area, he is believed to have been rewarded for his loyalty to the party.
Political expert, however, termed the new cabinet as an act of balance by Rawat on caste and region equations along with pacifying the “rebel MLAs”.
Political expert MM Semwal, said, “The new cabinet has six ministers from Garhwal region while five from Kumaon region. Those from Garhwal are Maharaj, Uniyal, Harak Singh, Dhan Singh, Joshi and Yatishwaranand while those from Kumaon are Yashpal Arya, Rekha Arya, Pandey, Chuphal and Bhagat.” Semwal said, “Apart from this, by including Chuphal, the party leadership seems to have finally doused the fire of rebellion.”
The Congress termed the new cabinet as a mere “eyewash”
to cover up the government’s “failures”.
Party state president Pritam Singh said, “The new cabinet will make no difference for the BJP with a year left for the next state assembly elections in 2022. “If they are thinking that changing the CM and having a new cabinet will help them in the elections then they are wrong because the public has already made up their mind to show them the door in 2022.”