Harish Rawat sworn in as Uttarakhand chief minister

Dehradun: Harish Rawat, a Union minister, was sworn in as new chief minister of Uttarakhand, succeeding Vijay Bahuguna who was asked by the Congress high command to step down in a bid to boost its prospects ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls. The 65-year-old Rawat’s name was approved by Congress president Sonia Gandhi who was authorised to name the Congress Legislature Party(CLP) leader after a one-line resolution was passed at its meeting here, senior party leader Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters in Dehradun. Rawat is at present Union Cabinet Minister for Water Resources.[caption id=“attachment_1370199” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Union Minister Harish Rawat. Image courtesy PIB [/caption] In the 70-member assembly, Congress has 33 members and has the support of seven-member PDF including three BSP, one UKD and three Independent MLAs. BJP has 30 MLAs. The PDF, which has four ministers in the outgoing Bahuguna ministry, has pressed for additional ministerial berths in the new government. “Soniaji gave her approval for Rawat’s name. He has been elected CLP leader and will be sworn in Chief Minister along with some Cabinet ministers later today,” Dwivedi said to loud cheers from supporters of Rawat after the five-hour-long CLP meeting. Rawat pipped two other front runners for the top post–senior party leader Indira Hridayesh and member of Bahuguna’s cabinet Pritam Singh. Soon after being named the CLP leader, Rawat thanked all senior party leaders including Sonia Gandhi and those from the state including Indira Hridayesh, Vijay Bahuguna, Yashpal Arya and Pritam Singh for supporting him. Spelling out his priorities, Rawat said it would be definitely to pull the state out of the fallout of the catastrophic flashfloods of June, 2013. Besides Dwivedi, senior Congress leaders Ambika Soni and Ghulam Nabi Azad attended the CLP meet as central observers. Bahuguna, who resigned on Friday, had come under criticism for the way he had handled the flood situation and relief and rescue work. PTI