Uttarakhand: Ending three days of intense political activity and speculation, Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat stepped down late on Friday night, at a little past 11pm, just under four months after taking over the reins of the hill state.
He tendered his resignation to governor Baby Rani Maurya at the Raj Bhavan in Dehradun. Earlier in the week, reported about the likelihood of yet another change of guard in the state. The reason given for Rawat’s resignation was that it was being done to avert a “constitutional crisis”.
Rawat, who is Lok Sabha MP from Pauri Garhwal, needed to win an assembly seat by September 10, but with the Election Commission not likely to conduct a bypoll in the state, it left him with no other option but to tender his resignation, highly placed sources told media.
The decision followed hectic parleys throughout the week with Rawat meeting senior party leaders including BJP chief JP Nadda and home minister Amit Shah in Delhi after being urgently summoned there on Wednesday. He was scheduled to return on Thursday evening but was asked to stay back. Rawat met Nadda again on Friday morning.
After the meeting with Nadda, Rawat had told reporters, “We discussed development projects related to Uttarakhand and the 2022 assembly elections.” On being asked about the bypoll, he said, “It is the decision of the Election Commission. Whatever the Centre decides, we will move ahead in that direction. We will follow the strategy decided by the Centre.”
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