New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday announced that former state Cabinet minister and five-time MLA, Jairam Thakur, 52, will head its government in Himachal Pradesh where the party won 44 out of 68 Assembly seats in the recently concluded election.
Most of the BJP MLAs backed Mr Thakur’s name for the top post in the legislature party meeting held in Shimla in the presence of party’s Central observers — Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar.
Mr Thakur-led BJP government will take oath on December 27 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to be present.
Jairam first Himachal BJP CM from Mandi
Having an RSS lineage, Mr Thakur, MLA from Seraj is a Rajput, numerically dominant caste in the state.
Addressing the media shortly after his appointment as the CM, Mr Thakur thanked all BJP leaders.
“I thank all legislators for supporting my candidature.... We waited for Congress-Mukt Himachal, now our dreams have come true.... I want to thank Prem Kumar Dhumal ji who proposed my name, “said the CM-elect.
Sources disclosed that though Mr Thakur’s name was announced at the legislature party meeting in the afternoon in Shimla, he had received a call from the party top brass in the morning about his name being finalised. BJP President Amit Shah, sources said, held a meeting on Saturday night to deliberate on mainly two names — Mr Thakur and former CM PK Dhumal, who lost his seat.
While a majority of BJP-RSS cadre was backing Mr Thakur’s name for the top post, a section within the state unit was also lobbying hard for Prof. Dhumal. Though Union Minister JP Nadda’s name was also doing the rounds, the Saffron cadre and senior state leaders were in favor of only an MLA’s name to be considered for the top post.
Sources disclosed Mr Thakur ‘s name was also finalised as the central leadership was in favor of promoting a second generation leadership in the state. Mr Thakur comes from the Mandi region, which till today never had any saffron party CM in the state. The CM issue had created major rift within the BJP state unit. Supporters of both Mr Thakur and Prof Dhumal had clashed recently outside the venue of a meeting of central observers earlier.
