The BJP on Monday opted to continue with incumbent Chief Ministers Pushkar Singh Dhami and Pramod Sawant for the new governments in Uttarakhand and Goa, a day after N. Biren Singh was repeated in Manipur in a similar manner. Legislature party meetings of the party in Uttarakhand and Goa elected Mr. Dhami and Mr. Sawant as leaders, maintaining status quo in these States.
In the case of Uttarakhand, the decision to retain Mr. Dhami in the Chief Minister's chair came despite the fact that while the BJP won a majority in the recent Assembly polls, he had lost his own seat of Khatima. The decision is a reverse of what had happened in Himachal Pradesh in 2017 when Prem Kumar Dhumal had to sit out of government after losing his own seat while the party won, and Jairam Thakur was elected Chief Minister from among the elected MLAs. Since the Uttarakhand Assembly does not have an Upper House or Legislative Council, Mr. Dhami will now have to be elected to the Assembly via a bypoll within six months.
