What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
DEHRADUN: Speculations were rife as Uttarakhand Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met with Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday.
Sources in the Uttarakhand unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the government told The New Indian that Cabinet expansion is likely to happen soon.
The meeting between Dhami and Shah is said to be for the approval of names to be added to the Cabinet.
“The CM met the union home minister to discuss the Cabinet expansion in the state. Now that the approval has been granted by the leadership, Cabinet expansion will take place soon,” said a party source.
The visit of the CM happens to be the first one after the state BJP got its new president on July 30.
A senior Cabinet minister told The New Indian that the names that are being considered are former state BJP president and Haridwar MLA Madan Kaushik, Vikasnagar BJP MLA Munna Singh Chauhan, Lansdowne MLA Dilip Singh Rawat and Tehri MLA Kishore Upadhyay, former state president of the Indian National Congress who joined the BJP just before state assembly elections.
The Uttarakhand state Cabinet has 11 positions, of which three Cabinet berths are lying vacant.
In March this year, after winning 47 seats, eight Cabinet ministers took their oath along with CM Dhami.
Sources told The New Indian that the party wants to strike a balance between the Kumaon and Garhwal regions of the state.
Currently, the state Cabinet has a total of five ministers from the Garhwal region – Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Satpal Maharaj, Premchandra Agarwal and Ganesh Joshi – and four from the Kumaon region – CM Dhami, Rekha Arya, Chand Ram Das and Saurabh Bahuguna.
