Newly elected Uttarakhand MLAs take oath today, CM to be named by evening

The newly elected MLAs of Bharatiya Janata Party will take the oath of office at a ceremony scheduled to take place at the Uttarakhand Assembly in Dehradun on Monday.

"All newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly will take oath at 11 am in Vidhan Sabha," said Madan Kaushik, BJP chief, Uttarakhand.

Kaushik further informed that the name of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister will be announced at the Legislative Party meeting scheduled to take place in the evening after the swearing ceremony.

"The meeting of Legislative Party will be held in the evening. Thereafter, the Chief Minister's name will be announced," Kaushik added.

Pro-tem Speaker in the Uttarakhand Assembly Bansidhar Bhagat and Governor of Uttarakhand, Lieutenant General (Retired) Gurmit Singh had also confirmed on Sunday that the MLAs would take their oath on Monday.

Meanwhile, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Kaushik, and former Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday at his residence in the national capital to discuss government formation.

BJP President JP Nadda and party leaders BL Santhosh and Uttarakhand minister Satpal Maharaj were also present at Shah's residence.

"The procedure for government formation is underway...the BJP central leadership will take a decision (on CM face)," said Dhami, at Uttarakhand Bhawan in Delhi on Sunday.

Till now six MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party have announced their willingness to vacate their Assembly seats to help Dhami get elected to the House.

Dhami had lost to Congress candidate Bhuwan Chandra Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes. Dhami got a total of 41,598 votes with a vote share of 44.8 per cent as against Kapri who got 48,177 with a huge vote share of 51.89 per cent.

The BJP won the popular mandate for the second consecutive term in Uttarakhand, bagging 47 seats in the 70-member Assembly.