Khanduri inducts 10 Ministers

Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri inducted eight Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of State into his Cabinet on Tuesday. The portfolios of the newly inducted Ministers are expected to be announced by late evening. The Ministers took oath at the residence of Governor Sudarshan Aggrawal.

Ramesh Pokhriayal Nishank, Matbar Singh Kandari, Bansidhar Bhagat, Bishan Singh Chufal, Diwakar Bhatt, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Madan Kaushik and Rajendra Singh Bhandari took oath as Cabinet Ministers while Ajay Tamta and Bina Mehrana took oath as Ministers of State.

The names were finalised after a series of meetings with the central leadership of the party on March 24 and 25. However, another meeting was held between BJP State chief BS Koshiari and the Chief Minister on Monday. It was speculated that Khanduri would announce the names of his Cabinet Ministers since March 8, when he officially took oath as the Chief Minister.

Ramesh Pokhriyal, Banshidhar Bhagat and Matbar Singh Kandari have served the Government as Ministers. Cabinet Minister Rajendra Bhandari and Diwakar Bhatt and Ministers of State Ajay Tamta and Bina Mehrana are first time MLAs.

Ramesh Pohkriyal is an experienced leader and also served the State twice as Cabinet Minister. Banshidhar Bhagat had defeated former Cabinet Minister Indira Hritesh from Haldwani constituency.