After Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as chief minister of Uttarakhand, the Uttarakhand BJP unit will hold a legislative party meeting on Saturday to elect a new leader. The legislative party will meet at 3 p.m., according to Uttarakhand BJP unit president Madan Kaushik, with Narendra Singh Tomar as the central observer. “The new leader will be a member of the Legislative Assembly,” Kaushik said. Manveer Singh Chauhan, the state BJP media in-charge, said all party MLAs have been invited to the meeting.
Tirath Singh Rawat, Uttarakhand’s chief minister, resigned on Friday after only four months in office, the shortest tenure ever for a chief minister in the state. Rawat resigned days after meeting with the BJP’s central leadership, which included Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda. Rawat took over as chief minister on March 10 this year. Rawat’s resignation comes just months before Uttarakhand’s assembly elections, which are set to take place in early 2022.
Rawat resigned from his post on Friday night, hours after addressing a press conference in Dehradun, and submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya. In the midst of what he described as a “constitutional crisis” in the state, he said the decision was appropriate. “I owe a debt of gratitude to the party’s central leadership, which has entrusted me with numerous responsibilities over the years. He said after submitting his resignation to the governor, “I’ve been an MLC, MLA, MP, party state president, and most recently chief minister.” “I thank my party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the core of my heart,” he added.
Because the Election Commission was unlikely to hold by-elections due to Covid-19, the senior BJP leader hinted that he resigned. If the CM is not a member of the assembly, he or she must be elected within six months of taking office. A poll official, on the other hand, stated that no request for a bypoll had been made, but that precedents might have allowed it.
Tirath Singh Rawat’s tenure was marred by controversy, including his decision to allow the Mahakumbh in the face of a spike in cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and widespread testing fraud during the holy event. His remarks about women’s clothing, as well as his claim that the Ganga’s waters can prevent infections, drew criticism.
After Trivendra Singh Rawat resigned from the top job post amid infighting in the state unit, Rawat, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Garhwal in 2019, was named Uttarakhand’s ninth Chief Minister. In the 70-member house, the BJP has 56 MLAs.
