Jai Ram Thakur elected as new Himachal CM

Shimla: After a week-long deliberation and huddles within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in selecting the new Chief Minister for Himachal Pradesh, party legislative party on Sunday unanimously elected five-time MLA Jai Ram Thakur as the Chief Minister.

Mr Thakur would replace six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh as Congress lost the assembly elections after facing major defeat from BJP as the latter won 44 seats out of 68, pushing the ruling Congress to 21 from 36 seats in the last elections.

In a high level meeting attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Urban Development Narendra Tomar and party state in-charge and Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey, state core committee members and newly elected legislators, elected Mr Thakur as the next Chief Minister.(UNI)