Even after retaining power in Uttarakhand breaking the usual trend of alternative parties winning the state Assembly election, the battle has not ended for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yet as they face another task to decide on the next chief minister.
The outgoing chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami has lost his Khatima seat in the Assembly elections to a Congress candidate despite the BJP's thumping victory in the state.
According to the sources in the party, the deliberations on the matter are unlikely to begin before next week.
Going by the procedure, the BJP will send central observers to hold the meeting of the legislative party and to elect the leader of the Legislative Assembly.
However, the sources indicate that the party's top brass will take a call on the successor of Dhami mid next week.
There is a strong possibility that the oath-taking ceremony of the next chief minister will take place only after March 18.
While several leaders are considered to be in the fray for the chief ministerial post including Union Minister Ajay Bhatt and Ritu Khanduri among the others, there is a sentiment in favour of Dhami who took over as the CM in July 2021 and had a very short stint before the Assembly elections.
Recently, a few newly elected MLAs have already expressed their desire to step down to make way for Dhami to become an MLA.
The BJP has come back to power for the second consecutive term in Uttarakhand with a two-third majority in the 70-member Assembly. The party has won 47 seats and got a vote share of 44.33 per cent, a drop of nearly two per cent from the previous 2017 Assembly elections. The BJP had secured a 46.51 per cent vote share in the 2017 Assembly election. However, the BJP suffered a loss of 10 seats in comparison to the previous polls in 2017 when the party had come with an even bigger majority with 57 seats.
The Congress party, which was hoping to return to power in this election managed to win 19 seats.
( With inputs from ANI )
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