Harish Rawat sworn in as Uttarakhand CM

Union Minister Harish Rawat on Saturday was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand following Vijay Bahuguna’s resignation from the post on Friday.

The Congress high command had asked Bahuguna to step down from the post in a bid to boost the party’s prospects ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Rawat, 65, was the Union Cabinet Minister for Water Resources.

“Soniaji gave her approval for Rawat’s name. He has been elected CLP leader,” Dwivedi had said at the five-hour-long CLP meeting, attracting loud cheers from Rawat supporters.Besides Dwivedi, senior Congress leaders Ambika Soni and Ghulam Nabi Azad attended the CLP meet as central observers. In the 70-member assembly, the Congress has 33 members and has the support of the seven-member Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), which includes three Bahujan Samaj Party, one Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and three Independent MLAs. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party has 30 MLAs. The PDF, which has four ministers in the outgoing Bahuguna ministry, has pressed for additional ministerial berths in the new government. Rawat pipped two other front runners at the top post; senior party leader Indira Hridayesh and a member of Bahuguna’s cabinet, Pritam Singh.

Soon after being named the CLP leader, Rawat thanked all senior party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Indira Hridayesh, Vijay Bahuguna, Yashpal Arya and Pritam Singh for supporting him.

Rawat said his priority would be to pull the state out from the fallout of the catastrophic flash floods of June 2013.