RSS-activist Trivendra to take oath as Uttarakhand CM with 9 ministers

Long-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist Trivendra Singh Rawat will take oath as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand along with nine other ministers here later Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and a host of senior leaders and cabinet ministers of the NDA government are expected to attend the grand ceremony at the Parade Ground in Dehradun.

Party sources told IANS that nine ministers -- seven of cabinet rank and two ministers of state -- were likely to be sworn in along with Rawat, who will be the 9th chief minister of the hill state since its creation in 2000.

Among the cabinet probables are Satpal Maharaj, Madan Kaushik, Yashpal Arya, Harak Singh Rawat, Prakash Pant, Arvind Pandey and Subodh Uniyal. State ministers who are likely to be sworn in include Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Area, the sources said.

BJP won a landslide majority in the Uttarakhand state assembly elections, winning 57 of the 70 seats. Congress got 11.

A former associate of Modi, Rawat was Agriculture Minister in the previous BJP government in Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000.

Elected from Doiwala, where he defeated Congress' Hira Singh Bisht with a margin of over 24,000 votes, Rawat is widely regarded in the party for his organisational skills.

He is also known as a 'Pracharak' (campaigner) in the RSS.

Rawat will be the fifth BJP Chief Minister in the state. The party formed its first government in the state in 2000 with Nityanand Swami as the first Chief Minister.

--IANS

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