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Ahead of the government formation in Uttarakhand, Governor Lt. General (Retired) Gurmit Singh sworn in senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bansidhar Bhagat as the Protem Speaker of state Legislative Assembly on Monday.
Bhagat, who has previously been the state unit chief of the BJP, was administered the oath at a function in Raj Bhawan in Dehradun. Bhagat served as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the Pushkar Singh Dhami government, while he headed the BJP unit in the state when Trivendra Singh Rawat was the Chief Minister. The newly-elected MLAs will also take oath today in the state Assembly. Meanwhile, the BJP is holding the legislature party meeting in the evening to elect the leader who will also be the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Notably, BJP MLA and former minister Rekha Arya has supported Dhami as the next Chief Minister. Several MLAs, including Ganesh Joshi and Arvind Pandey, have given their consent for the name of Dhami as the leader of the legislature party. Till now six MLAs of the BJP have expressed 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. (ANI)
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