DEHRADUN: Second among four children, the young Pushkar Singh Dhami, the new chief minister of Uttarakhand, learned to become responsible from an early age.
His father served in the Indian Army and Dhani helped his three sisters and mother in the household chores and other works. Born in Tundi village of Didihaat tehsil of Pithoragarh district in 1975, Dhami is a law graduate in human resource management and industrial relations from the University of Lucknow.
Financial constraints could never stop young Dhami from pursuing higher education. His school education up to Class 12 took place in various government schools in the Himalayan state. For nine years from 1990, he remained active with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS.
After Uttarakhand was carved out from Uttar Pradesh in 2000, Dhami became state president of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the saffron party, in the year 2002.
He has served in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its sister organisations for 33 years. Dhami won his first elections in 2012 as an MLA from Khatima constituency in Udham Singh Nagar district.