Pushkar Singh Dhami, who led the BJP to a second consecutive term in Uttarakhand but himself lost his seat, has been picked by the party to become chief minister again.

The BJP legislative party on Monday – attended by BJP’s central observers Rajnath Singh, Meenakshi Lekhi and the party’s poll incharge for the state, Pralhad Joshi – elected him as their leader.

Dhami was plucked out of obscurity by the BJP last July and made the Uttarakhand chief minister, with just months to go before the state elections. That was after the party decided to look for options other than his predecessors Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat.

Dhami justified the party’s confidence in him, with the BJP winning 47 of the 70 seats and getting a second consecutive term for the first time in the state’s 21-year history.

But he himself lost in his own Khatima constituency, by a slim margin of about 6,500 votes.

At 45, Dhami was the state’s youngest chief minister when he first took over in July. The state was then grappling with a series of problems and with elections just round the corner Dhami had little time to prove himself.

The state’s economy was battered by Covid, the Char Dham priests were agitating against a new regulatory board, and a massive Covid testing scam had hit the headlines earlier.

Like other BJP chief ministers, Dhami styled himself as the one who executed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “grand vision” for the state’s development through a “double-engine” government.

Dhami is often regarded as a protégé of Maharashtra Governor and former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, whom he served as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and an adviser.

He began his political career in 1990 with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP and was the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha twice. He campaigned for reservation of jobs in industries for the local youth.

Dhami’s father retired as a subedar in the Army. He was born in Pithoragarh’s Tundi village, after the family shifted there from its ancestral village Harkhola. When he was in class 5, they moved to Khatima, which was to become Dhami’s ‘karmabhoomi’ later. He won the assembly polls from there twice.

Before the Uttarakhand assembly polls, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had compared Pushkar Singh Dhami to cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhami, he said, was a “good finisher”, suggesting that he will get the BJP the runs it needed to win the election.

While making the cricketing analogy Rajnath Singh reportedly said Dhami was working relentlessly as the CM and needed also to play a test match. Dhami is now padding up to play the longer innings.

( With PTI inputs)