BJP legislature party to elect Dhumal as leader

VICTORY SMILE: Dhumal will take oath as the Chief Minister on Sunday after the Legislature Party’s meeting.

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New Delhi: The BJP's victory chariot moved into Himachal Pradesh on Friday with the saffron party making a clean sweep in the Assembly elections, winning 41 seats in the 68-member Assembly.

The BJP has returned to power in the state after a gap of five years. With this win, the saffron rule has spread to almost the whole of North India.

Both Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh (Rohru) and BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal (Bamsan) emerged victorious.

The newly elected BJP MLAs will meet in Shimla on Saturday to formally elect Dhumal as their leader. The BJP’s in-charge for the state, Dhumal gave full credit for the victory to the party.

When quizzed about whether Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had helped swing the tide in the BJP's favour in Himachal as well, Dhumal said that Modi was his close friend and he had been guiding them.

“Modi played his part in Gujarat, however, we did our best,” Dhumal said.

The 63-year-old Dhumal, a professor of English literature, who was named as BJP's chief ministerial candidate, led the saffron surge winning from Bamsan in Hamirpur district beating his schoolmate and Congress candidate retired Colonel BC Lagwal by 26,000 votes.

Dhumal, who also represents Hamirpur in Lok Sabha, Dhumal will take oath as the Chief Minister on Sunday after the Legislature Party’s meeting on Saturday. He will be sworn in for a second term as chief minister.

The oath taking ceremony will be attended by party president Rajnath Singh, and senior leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj among others.

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