Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat resigns less than 4 months after taking office
Tirath Singh Rawat, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand resigned from his post late Friday night, merely hours after addressing press conference talking about his government’s achievements. Rawat has presented his resignation less than four months after taking the office, thereby putting BJP in a position to have third Uttarakhand CM in four months.
At around 11 pm on Friday, CM Rawat reached Raj Bhavan with his Cabinet members and handed over his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya.
The reason of resignation is cited as the constitutional provision that requires him to get elected to Assembly within six months timeframe, and that it was highly unlikely. On Saturday afternoon, BJP has called legislative members meeting at Dehradun’s party headquarters.
After resigning, Rawat said to the media, “Considering the constitutional crisis… I found it appropriate to resign.” He also thanked PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP president J P Nadda for giving him the opportunity to serve as Uttarakhand CM.
Rawat, though continues to serves as MP, was handpicked by central leadership to serve as CM in place of Trivendra Singh Rawat. Tirath Singh Rawat was sworn in on March 10 and had time till September 10 to be re-elected as MLA. But according to Representation of Peoples Act, and partly because of Covid-19, by-election for seat should not be conducted if House term is less than a year.
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The next daunting task of replacing Rawat will not be a cakewalk for BJP as divisions stand tall in party’s ranks in Uttarakhand. Many suitors for the post include Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni.
State leaders have blamed the whole situation on lapse from the central leadership. One of them said that it has added to the “woes of the party ahead of the Assembly elections”.
