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The Newz Radar
SHIMLA: Congress MLAs Rajesh Dharmani (51) and Yadvinder Goma (37), both of whom are tipped to be ministers and will be sworn-in at a ceremony in Shimla on Tuesday (December 12, 2023) at 4.45 pm, will both be first-time ministers. Another interesting fact is that both the probable inductees are engineering graduates and have also done MBA. They both have one daughter each.
Dharmani belongs to the Brahmin community and is an MLA from Ghumarwin seat in Bilaspur district. He is the son of Rattan Lal Dharmani and was born on April 2, 1972, at Ghumarwin. He has done BTech (Civil) from the prestigious NIT, Hamirpur, and MBA from IGNOU. He is married to Sonika Sharma and the couple have one daughter. He is an engineer by profession as is also into agriculture and social work.
A third-time MLA from Ghumarwin, he was elected to the Assembly for the first time in December 2007 and and re-elected in 2012 and again in 2022. From 2007-2012, he was a member of the House ‘Estimates & Human Development Committees’ while he remained a Chief Parliamentary Secretary from 2013 to 2017.
In the Congress, he has remained the secretary, PCC; vice president and general secretary, Himachal Youth Congress; president, DCC; secretary, AICC, and general secretary & convener, technical cell, NSUI. In his third term, he was nominated as chairman, Human Development Committee; and member, Public Accounts & e-Governance-cum-General Purposes Committees.
He has interests in women empowerment, environment protection, agriculture and sericulture promotion. He is the founder member of ‘Samvedna’ charitable society, which works towards helping poor students in getting higher, technical and professional education, besides helping widows and their children.
Yadvinder Goma, representing the Jaisinghpur reserved seat of Kangra district, will be one of the youngest ministers in the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government of Himachal Pradesh.
Aged 37, he will be the second-youngest member in the council of minister after Vikramaditya Singh, who is 34 and holds the PWD portfolio.
Born to Vidya Devi and Milkhi Ram Goma, who too was an MLA, on February 4, 1986, Yadvinder Goma belongs to Parnoh village of Panchrukhi tehsil of Kangra district. He is an engineer, businessman and agriculturist by profession. He had done his BTech in mechanical engineering and MBA from IEET, Baddi. He is married to Neelam Goma and has a daughter.
Yadvinder Goma was first elected to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly at a young age of 26 in 2012 and was re-elected in 2022. At present, he has been nominated as chairman of the Subordinate Legislation Committee as well as a member of the Welfare and Rules Committee.
He has remained the president of the Youth Congress of Jaisinghpur constituency from 2010 to 2015; general secretary, State Rajeev Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan, 2011-2014; and president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress SC Cell from 2019-2021.
If Chief Minister Sukhu goes with Dharmani and Goma—The Newz Radar was the first to report it—the Himachal Congress would be looking to balance caste equations in his cabinet ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Dharmani would be the second member of the Brahmin community to join the Cabinet. So will be Goma, who represents the Scheduled Caste (SC) community. Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, an MLA from Haroli constituency in Una district, too belongs to the Brahmin community. Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil represented the Solan SC seat.
After Dharmani and Goma, the Himachal Pradesh cabinet will have two members each from the Brahmin and Scheduled Caste community. Four other cabinet members — Chief Minister Sukhu, PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh, Education Minister Rohit Thakur and Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh — are Rajputs. Revenue and Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi belongs to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community and represents Kinnaur seat.
After the two new inductions, the Sukhu government will still have one vacant berth. The Himachal cabinet can accommodate maximum 10 ministers, including the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister.
