Just three months into office, Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat offers to resign: Sources

In a major development, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat has offered to resign just three months after assuming office, sources cited by Zee News said.

Rawat has been in Delhi for the last three days and met BJP national president JP Nadda on Friday for the second time within the last 24 hours. With this round of meetings, there were speculations of another leadership change in the state. 

Rawat will hold a press conference at 9:30 pm in Dehradun.

The crisis in Uttarakhand BJP is far from over and just after changing the CM three months ago, now the leadership crisis has come before the party.

According to sources, Rawat wrote a letter to BJP President JP Nadda. In this letter, offering to resign from the post of CM. He said that a constitutional crisis has arisen in the state, so his resignation should be accepted.

Sources said that these speculations are arising because less than a year is left for the Uttarakhand assembly elections. At the same time, it is a constitutional obligation for Rawat to be elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly by September 10 to continue in his post. Rawat, the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Pauri, took over as Chief Minister from Trivendra Singh Rawat on March 10 this year.

After meeting Nadda, Rawat said that he discussed the preparations for the upcoming assembly elections with the party president. On the question of when the by-elections will be held in the state, Rawat said that only the Election Commission can take any decision in this regard. He said that whatever strategy the central leadership of the party decides in this regard, it will be further worked out.

It may be noted that at present, two assembly seats, Gangotri and Haldwani, are vacant in the state where the by-election is to be held. Since the assembly elections are proposed to be held in the state in February-March next year, law experts believe that the decision to hold the by-election depends on the discretion of the Election Commission.