Ramesh Pokhriyal to be new Uttarakhand CM

Uttarakhand Health Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal will be the new Chief Minister of the state in place of B C Khanduri who resigned on Tuesday owing moral responsibility for the rout of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

Fifty one-year-old journalist-turned-politician Pokhriyal was elected unanimously leader of the BJP legislature party at the meeting of MLAs here, state Agriculture Minister Trivendra Rawat said.

Pokhriyal's name was proposed by outgoing Chief Minister Khanduri and seconded by state Tourism Minister and of the contenders for the top post Prakash Pant, Rawat and Chandan Ramdas.

Khanduri will submit his resignation to Governor B L Joshi on Thursday after which Pokhriyal and his new team will be sworn in.

Ramesh Pokhriyal - a profile

A journalist-turned-politician, Ramesh Pokhriyal, who has been chosen for the chief minister's post in Uttarakhand, has had a steady innings in state politics.

After actively participating in the Ram Temple movement during the early 1990s, which catapulted BJP to power in Uttar Pradesh, 51-year-old Pokhriyal became a hill development minister in state before its bifurcation.

He made his debut in the Uttar Pradesh assembly in 1991 when he won from Karanprayag seat and retained it in 1993 and 1996.

When Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in November 2000, he raised a banner of revolt against the first Chief Minister of the hill state Nitya Nand Swami by boycotting the swearing-in ceremony.

After being persuaded by the high command, Pokhriyal took oath and became the first Finance Minister of Uttarakhand in the interim government.

He lost the assembly election in 2002 from Thalisein assembly seat but was elected again to the state assembly in 2007 and became a minister in the B C Khanduri government.

However, a year later he joined the oust-Khanduri campaign, though subsequently he distanced himself from the dissidents and returned to the Khanduri camp.

Born on August 15, 1958 at Pinani in Pauri district, Pokhriyal began as a journalist and has written several books.