Shimla: As Jai Ram Thakur takes oath as Himachal Pradesh chief minister in Shimla this morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, several Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will be in attendance. The swearing in ceremony will be held at 11 am at the historic Ridge Maidan which turned saffron with BJP flags fluttering all around and cut outs of PM Modi, Amit Shah and Jai Ram Thakur spread over.
The names or number of ministers in the new Himachal government have not been officially revealed, but the new Himachal Pradesh cabinet will be a blend of old and new faces, as indicated by Mr Thakur. "The cabinet will have both experienced and new faces," he had told reporters in his first official interaction with reporters on Monday, a day after being elected as the BJP Legislature Party leader in the Assembly.
The new ministers in his 11-member cabinet likely are former Cabinet ministers Rajeev Bindal, Kishan Kapoor, Sarveen Chaudhary, Mohinder Singh, Congress rebel Anil Sharma, Narinder Bragta and Ramesh Dhawala and new faces could comprise Gobind Thakur, Vikram Jaryal, Rakesh Pathania and Rajeev Sahjal, reports news agency IANS.
Massive security and other arrangements have been made for the grand function and the Ridge, Annandale helipad and Jubbar-Hatti airport were under the protection of the Special Protection Group or SPG. It will be the fourth time that the swearing in ceremony is taking place outside Raj Bhawan at the Ridge.
Most of the VVIPs would land at the Jubbar-Hatti airport and be flown to the Annandale helipad by choppers and finally taken to the venue of the rally in a motorcade to avoid disruption of normal traffic and a corridor has been kept for emergency services like movement of ambulances.
Jairam Thakur, a five-time legislator was picked as the new chief minister of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, a day after Prem Kumar Dhumal -- whom the BJP had named as its prospective Chief Minister 10 days before the elections - pulled out of the race. The 73-year-old had lost the election to his Congress opponent and one-time protege Rajendra Rana, even though his party won 44 of the state's 68 seats. But he remained in the race as several loyalists offered him their fresh-won seats.
52-year-old Mr Thakur, who represents Seraj, a constituency near Mandi, had earlier been the party's state unit chief and a minister in a government headed by Mr Dhumal. During the counting of votes on Monday afternoon, as the trends showed Mr Dhumal was heading for defeat, he was the first off the block to take a flight to Delhi to meet the party's central leadership.
Considered a popular Thakur face, the lawmaker from Seraj constituency served as the BJP's state chief between 2006 and 2009 and was credited with striking a balance between the warring factions.
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