Jairam Thakur takes oath as Himachal CM

Jai Ram Thakur was on Wednesday sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Himachal Pradesh along with 11 other ministers at a ceremony at the historic Ridge Ground here.

Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 52-year-old Thakur, a five-time MLA from Seraj, and other ministers which included six new faces.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, party veteran L K Advani and a host of Union ministers.

The cabinet is complete as all 12 berths have been filled while two MLAs would be accommodated as the speaker - Rajiv Bindal will be the speaker of the legislative assembly - and deputy speaker.

Jai Ram is the first chief minister from the second largest Mandi district and sixth person to adorn the office of the chief minister.

Suresh Bharadwaj and Gobind Singh Thakur took oath in Sanskrit while the others took oath in Hindi. Sarveen Chaudhry is the lone woman in the cabinet.

The new ministers include Mohinder Singh, Krishan Kapoor, Suresh Bharadwaj, Anil Sharma, Sarveen Chowdhary, Ram Lal Markanda, Vipin Parmar, Virender Kanwar, Gobind Thakur, Rajiv Saizal and Vikram Singh.

Besides, the chief minister, two ministers are from his home district of Mandi, four from the largest Kangra district, one each from Shimla, Solan, Kullu, Una and Lahaul and Spiti districts.

Bilaspur and Hamirpur, home districts of Union Health Minister J P Nadda and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chamba and Sirmaur districts have been left unrepresented.

The BJP had won 20 seats in Kangra and Mandi districts and also won 13 out of 17 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and two out of three Scheduled Tribe seats.

Some senior party leaders and former ministers including Romesh Dhawala and Narinder Bragata have not been given a cabinet berth.

There are six Rajputs including the chief minister, Mohinder Singh, Vipin Parmar, Virender Kanwar, Gobind Thakur and Vikram Singh, three Brahmins including Suresh Bharadwaj, Anil Sharma and Ram Lal Markanda, who is both tribal and Brahmin and two OBCs.

Thakur had earlier served as minister from 200912. He was state BJP chief from 200609.