NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday named Trivendra Singh Rawat, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, as next chief minister of Uttarakhand.

The decision came after the conclusion of a legislature party meeting on Friday, where consent was drawn from the party MLAs on Mr Rawat’s name as the state’s ninth chief minister.

Mr Rawat (56) is known to have close links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

He built a place for himself in national politics after he worked alongside Mr Shah in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2017