New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh at the historic Ridge Ground in Shimla.
Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 52-year-old Thakur, a five-time MLA from Seraj, and other ministers which included six new faces.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, BJP veteran L K Advani, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
It is for the first time that a prime minister has attended the oath-taking ceremony of a chief minister in Himachal Pradesh.
Rajiv Bindal will be the speaker of the legislative assembly.
Jai Ram is the first chief minister from Mandi district and the 14th chief minister and sixth person to adorn the office of the chief minister.
Suresh Bharadwaj and Gobind Singh Thakur took oath in Sanskrit while the others took oath in Hindi. Sarveen Chaudhry is the lone woman in the cabinet.
The new ministers include Mohinder Singh, Krishan Kapoor, Suresh Bharadwaj, Anil Sharma, Sarveen Chowdhary, Ram Lal Markanda, Vipin Parmar, Virender Kanwar, Gobind Thakur, Rajiv Saizal and Vikram Singh.
The BJP had won 20 seats in Kangra and Mandi districts and also won 13 out of 17 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and two out of three Scheduled Tribe seats.
Some senior party leaders and former ministers including Romesh Dhawala and Narinder Bragata have not been given berth in the cabinet.
There are six Rajputs including the chief minister, Mohinder Singh, Vipin Parmar, Virender Kanwar, Gobind Thakur and Vikram Singh, three Brahmins including Suresh Bharadwaj, Anil Sharma and Ram Lal Markanda, who is both tribal and Brahmin and two OBCs.
BJP ousted the Congress from power in Himachal Pradesh by winning 44 out of the 68 seats in the recently held assembly polls.
A five-time legislator, Thakur rose through the ranks and is known for his humble, clean and low-profile nature. Thakur had earlier served as minister from 2009 to 2012. He was state BJP chief from 2006 to 2009.
Jai Ram Thakur has said that his top priorities would be restoring law and order situation, to do away with the VIP culture, to review all decisions of the previous Congress government in past three months, to minimize wasteful expenditure and to develop tourism infrastructure.
