Tirath Singh Rawat, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, submitted his resignation to the Governor on Friday, just four months after taking office and just months before the state’s elections next year. ‘I felt it was necessary for me to resign due to the constitutional crisis. COVID-19 made it impossible to hold bypolls’ in a brief statement in Hindi, he said.
Uttarakhand’s BJP MLAs will meet tomorrow to elect a new leader.
Mr Rawat was sworn in as Chief Minister in March, just over a year before the Uttarakhand election, amid fierce opposition to his predecessor, Trivendra Rawat. Mr Rawat, who is an MP, would have to win an assembly seat and become a member of the Uttarakhand legislative assembly by September 10 in order to keep his position.
After the massive controversy surrounding the March-April election in five states, which coincided with rising virus cases in the second surge, the Election Commission would be hard pressed to hold bypolls at this time. ‘There are a lot of by-elections coming up. The Covid situation is a major factor to consider’ sources close to the Election Commission said this morning. To the BJP’s displeasure, the new Chief Minister failed to defuse the infighting in Uttarakhand any better than his predecessor.
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