Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya tonight, a little over three months after taking the charge from Trivendra Rawat.
Tirath said he had resigned to avoid a constitutional crisis. He had taken oath as the CM on March 10 and had to be elected as MLA within six months to continue on the post. According to Section 151-A of the Representation of the People Act, a bypoll is not held in a state if less than a year is left for the Assembly term to end, which in the case of Uttarakhand is March 23, 2022. Rawat handed over the resignation letter to the Governor past 11 pm, hours after returning from Delhi where he was summoned by the top BJP leadership on Wednesday.
The Uttarakhand BJP legislature party will meet Saturday to elect its new leader, who will be later sworn in as the next CM of the state where Assembly elections are due early next year. The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of BJP state president Madan Kaushik while Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will be the central observer.
Apart from this, holding an election amid the coronavirus pandemic was also being seen as a difficult proposition as the Election Commission faced criticism for conducting polls in five states and Union Territories during the second wave.
To avoid another such situation, the BJP is expected to go with sitting MLAs as the next CM. The names of several legislators and ministers, including Satpal Maharaj, Banshidar Bhagat, Harak Singh Rawat, Dhan Singh Rawat, Pushkar Singh Dhami and Ritu Khanduri, are doing the rounds to replace Tirath Singh.
Before leaving for Dehradun from Delhi (where he was summoned on Wednesday), Rawat met BJP chief JP Nadda to discuss the political situation and the need for his election to the state Assembly before September 10 to remain in office.
Tirath’s resignation, meanwhile, comes amid reports of alleged deep divisions in various factions and the “three-CM jinx” the BJP faced in its earlier tenure in the state.
Tirath joins the long list of Uttarakhand CMs with short tenures. The BJP will have three CMs during this regime as well. Not just the BJP, no Congress CM barring ND Tiwari has been able to complete his term in Uttarakhand.