Tirath Singh Rawat resigns as Uttarakhand CM months after taking oath
Premium- Rawat, currently a Lok Sabha member, has submitted his resignation to Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya
Barely four months after taking oath as Uttarakhand's new chief minister, Tirath Singh Rawat on Friday offered to resign from his post. Tirath Rawat is in Dehradun where he met Governor Baby Rani Maurya and submitted his resignation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party meeting is scheduled to be held at 3 pm tomorrow at the party headquarters in Uttarakhand where the BJP MLAs will meet to pick a new leader.
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The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Uttarakhand president Madan Kaushik, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the BJP has named Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar as the central observer for Uttarakhand. He will be in the state tomorrow.
Rawat, currently a Lok Sabha member, had arrived in the national capital on Wednesday and had met BJP president JP Nadda. He had also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, as per reports.
With Tirath Rawat's resignation, the BJP may again go in for a change in the leadership in the state as the prospect of the Election Commission holding an assembly bypoll there looks uncertain.
Speaking to reporters, Rawat said that the party will take a call about its political strategy in the state, and noted that holding or not holding the bypoll is the EC's prerogative.
Tirath Rawat took oath as Uttarakhand's CM on 10 March, replacing Trivendra Singh Rawat.
At the time of taking the oath, Tirath Rawat was not an elected MLA in the Uttarakhand Assembly and was rather a Lok Sabha MP representing Pauri Garhwal. He continues to be a Lok Sabha MP at present.
He needs to be elected as an MLA by 10 September to continue in the post.
What has made matters more complicated for Tirath Rawat is that the poll body had recently deferred holding some Lok Sabha and assembly elections due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The EC had said it would not be appropriate to hold the electoral exercise till the Covid-19 situation improves significantly.
Uttarakhand remained abuzz with speculation that the BJP could pick a new leader as the state's chief minister.
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