Four positions vacant in Uttarakhand cabinet

Friday, 29 SEPTEMBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

The decision of the Pushkar Singh Dhami government to appoint position holders has given momentum to the talk of reshuffle and expansion of the cabinet in the State. On Wednesday the State government took the long pending decision of appointing position holders. The government bestowed plum assignments to the BJP leaders Jyoti Prasad Gairola, Ramesh Gadia, Madhu Bhatt, Mufti Shamoon Kasmi, Balraj Pasi, Suresh Bhatt, Anil Dabbu, Kailash Pant, Shiv Singh Bisht and Narayan Ram Tamta. It is expected that the Dhami government could accommodate some more leaders soon by assigning them responsibilities in various corporations, commissions and bodies. The political observers have started drawing the conclusion that after the green signal given by the BJP high command for distributing responsibilities, the CM could soon go for expansion and even reshuffle of his cabinet. 

Three positions in the cabinet have been vacant ever since Dhami took over the CM in his second stint in March last year. After the recent death of minister Chandan Ram Dass, the number of vacancies in the cabinet has increased to four now. At present there are only two ministers (Rekha Arya and Saurabh Bahuguna) from the Kumaon region in the cabinet. Similarly as many as seven districts including the Haridwar and Nainital districts are unrepresented in the cabinet. At present Pauri (Satpal Maharaj and Dhan Singh Rawat) and Dehradun (Prem Chand Agarwal and Ganesh Joshi) are represented by two ministers each while Champawat is represented by CM Dhami, Udham Singh Nagar by Saurabh Bahuguna, Tehri by Subodh Uniyal and Almora by Rekha Arya in the cabinet.

The political observers opine that the central leadership of BJP would take a final decision on the cabinet expansion, reshuffle and its timing and its composition. They point out that the central leadership could allow Dhami to drop some non performing ministers or those the party high command would like to field in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and infuse fresh faces in the Dhami cabinet. Veteran Munna Singh Chauhan, speaker Ritu Khanduri, former BJP state presidents Madan Kaushik and Bansidhar Bhagat,  Dharampur MLA Vinod Chamoli, Lansdowne MLA Dilip Rawat, Bhimtal MLA Ram Singh Kaida, BHEL Ranipur MLA Adesh Chauhan, Devprayag MLA Vinod Kandari are some of the names which are making rounds as possible contenders for the vacant positions of Dhami cabinet.

Political analyst and senior journalist Jai Singh Rawat said that since there are many claimants for the position holders it is usually seen that the chief minister usually appoints them before any major election. He said that with the Lok Sabha election drawing near, the government has opened its box of political appointments. Rawat added that the CM could soon go for much awaited expansion and reshuffle of his cabinet.