Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Rawat resigns in the midst of a constitutional crisis, submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya late on Friday night after being in office for less than four months. After tendering his resignation at the Raj Bhavan here, Chief Minister Rawat told reporters that the main reason for his resignation was the constitutional crisis in which it was difficult for the Election Commission to conduct elections.
“Given the circumstances of the constitutional crisis, I thought it appropriate to tender my resignation,” he said. Rawat expressed his gratitude to his central leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said that they gave him an opportunity to serve in high positions.
Rawat, a Lok Sabha member from Pauri, took over as the chief minister on March 10 this year and was to be elected as a member of the assembly within six months, i.e. before September 10, as per the constitutional obligation. But the biggest impediment in the Chief Minister’s access to the Assembly came in the form of a constitutional crisis that normally by-elections are not held when the Assembly elections are less than a year away.
Anyway, due to the Covid epidemic, the circumstances of the election could not be created at the moment. Asked why he did not contest the Salt by-elections held in the state in April to avoid a constitutional crisis, the Chief Minister said that he was suffering from Covid at that time and hence did not get time for it.
State President Madan Kaushik, who was present with Chief Minister Rawat, said that an important meeting of the legislature party has been called at the party’s state headquarters on Saturday to select the new leader. State President Kaushik himself will preside over this meeting called on Saturday at 3 pm. He said that all the MLAs have been informed by the party to be present in Saturday’s meeting.
Earlier, Chief Minister Rawat, who returned from his three-day visit to Delhi, reached the state secretariat and spoke to reporters, but he took everyone by surprise by making new announcements without talking about his resignation. He said that several steps have been taken to provide relief to the people of the sectors like transport and tourism, who have been badly affected by the Covid epidemic and they will be given an assistance of about Rs.2000 crore.
In addition, he said that his government will fill 20,000 vacancies in six months to provide employment to the youth affected by the COVID pandemic. He said that he already wanted to make this announcement but is doing it now due to being in Delhi for three days.
