Uttarakhand / Uttarakhand CM's reason to resign is biggest lie: Cong's Harish Rawat

Dehradun: Veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat on Friday said Tirath Singh Rawat's resignation as Uttarakhand Chief Minister due to constitutional compulsion and byelections cannot be held in the state due to COVID is the biggest lie.

"What can be a bigger lie than this that byelections cannot be held in Uttarakhand due to COVID and the chief minister is resigning due to constitutional compulsion. The reality is that byelections have been held before in the same COVID period. The byelection has been held in Salt (an assembly constituency in Uttarakhand). The chief minister could have contested from there also," tweeted Harish Rawat.

"By making resignations of others from anywhere else, he could contest elections from there. But due to the lack of complete knowledge of the law, another Chief Minister has been imposed on the state. In five years, BJP is giving three chief ministers to Uttarakhand," added the former chief minister of Uttarakhand.

Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as chief minister of Uttarakhand on Friday.

"I have submitted my resignation to 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 here.

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 BJP 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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Dehradun.

Uttrakhand'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.

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.