5 new ministers inducted in Dhami govt

Dehradun: The long wait for cabinet expansion in Uttarakhand ended on Friday as five new ministers were inducted in the Pushkar Singh Dhami govt, barely a year before polls in the Himalayan state in 2027.Seasoned BJP members Khajan Das, MLA from Rajpur Road in Dehradun, and Madan Kaushik, Haridwar MLA, were given a cabinet berth. Three other BJP MLAs – Pradeep Batra from Roorkee, Ram Singh Kaira from Bhimtal and Bharat Chaudhary from Rudraprayag – also became a minister for the first time.Three cabinet berths were vacant since 2022, whereas one more vacancy was created after the demise of cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das and another after finance minister Prem Chand Aggarwal quit following controversy over his remarks about the people of Uttarakhand hills.With the cabinet expansion, eight ministers are from Garhwal and three from Kumaon. The CM also hails from Kumaon. With 2027 polls less than a year away, the cabinet expansion is being seen as an attempt to maintain Kumaon-Garhwal balance and also strengthen the BJP base in Haridwar, where it was reduced to three seats in 11 constituencies.On Friday, Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd) administered the oath of office and secrecy to all five new ministers at an event at Lok Bhawan.After being elected as MLA from Dhanaulti in 2007, Khajan Das moved to Dehradun and won in 2017 and 2022 from Rajpur Road constituency. The BJP stalwart was a sports and education minister during the tenure of Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.A five-time MLA from Haridwar seat, Madan Kaushik earlier was a finance and parliamentary affairs minister and held the key position of state BJP chief. However, he was not made a minister in the Dhami govt in 2022.Bharat Singh Chaudhary took the oath in Sanskrit. He started his political journey as a pradhan of Mawana gram panchayat and thereafter made some unsuccessful attempts to win from Karnprayag and Rudraprayag constituencies. He won in 2017 from Rudraprayag on a BJP ticket and retained the seat in 2022.Pradeep Batra won from Roorkee on a Congress ticket in 2012 and joined BJP in 2016. He won from the same constituency in 2017 and 2022 as a BJP candidate.Ram Singh Kaira contested from Bhimtal as a Congress nominee in 2012 and lost the seat, and in 2017 he emerged victorious as an Independent candidate. In 2022, he got a BJP ticket and registered his second win.Congratulating the new ministers, CM Dhami said, "Under the able leadership of Prime Minister, our double-engine govt is working with full commitment for the all-round development of Uttarakhand. The contribution of the newly appointed ministers will certainly be significant in the journey of all-round, inclusive and all-encompassing development of the state..."On the other hand, state Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal termed the cabinet expansion "a mere formality, which has been fulfilled barely a few months before the election".