Felt it was right for me to resign: Tirath Singh Rawat

Tirath Singh Rawat who resigned as chief minister of Uttarakhand on Friday said that the decision was right given the Constitutional crisis in the state.

"I have submitted my resignation to the Governor. Given the constitutional crisis, I felt it was right for me to resign. I am thankful to the central leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for every opportunity they have given to me so far," Rawat told mediapersons in Dehradun.

Rawat resigned from his post on Friday night.

He submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya hours after he addressed a press conference.

'Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat submitted his resignation letter from the post of Chief Minister at Raj Bhawan,' tweeted Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya soon after Rawat' resignation.

The resignation came less than four months after Tirath Singh Rawat took over as Chief Minister replacing Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Tirath Singh Rawat is MP from Garhwal.

The resignation came amid uncertainty over bypolls in Uttarakhand, which will face assembly elections early next year.

Rawat, who took over as chief minister on March 10 this year, had to be elected to the state assembly within six months but there is no certainty over bypolls being held which led to political uncertainty in the state.

Apart from the norms about not holding bypolls within six months of assembly polls, the situation due to COVID-19 was also an apparent factor in the decision regarding bypolls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is now expected to be led by a new leader in the assembly polls and the state is likely to get its third chief minister in nearly four months.

A meeting of the BJP legislature party is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Dehradun.

Uttarakhand's media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan said that the meeting of party MLAs will be held under the chairmanship of state president Madan Kaushik.

"BJP legislature party meeting is scheduled to be held at 3 pm on Saturday at the party headquarters.

"The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of state president Madan Kaushik," Chauhan said.

The BJP has named Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar as a central observer for Saturday's meeting of MLAs.

Earlier in the day, Rawat was in Delhi to meet the BJP central leadership.

In his press conference, he talked about various measures taken by the government during his tenure.

Former Uttarakhand minister and Congress leader Navprabhat had earlier this week written to the Election Commission urging it to 'clear the confusion' in the state regarding bypolls.

The Congress leader quoted Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which mandates that the Election Commission fill the casual vacancies in state legislatures through bye-elections within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy, provided that the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is one year or more.