Dhumal to take oath on Dec 30: Satpal

Shimla, Dec 28 (UNI) BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal will take oath as the next Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, party's state incharge Satpal Jain said today.

''The newly-elected legislators will meet here tomorrow to formally elect Mr Dhumal as their leader, who will later meet State Governor V S Kokje and stake claim for forming the next state government,'' he told reporters here.

Mr Jain said the former chief minister would be the only one to take the oath on December 30, while the other members of his Cabinet would be named a few days later.

Referring to the Congress' debacle in the assembly elections, he said the people of the state have rejected issues raised by the AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their electioneering in the state.

The people have overwhelmingly voted for the BJP in these elections, proving beyond doubt that they have lost faith in the Congress Government, he added.

He said the party's success in these elections follows its success in Uttarakhand, Punjab and Gujarat recently and would culminate in its victory in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Replying to a question, he said the BSP's social engineering, which had catapulted it to power in Uttar Pradesh, had failed miserably in the four states where elections were held recently.

UNI