Uttarakhand crisis: CM Tirath Singh Rawat resigns; BJP MLAs to meet Saturday

BJP leader Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as Uttarakhand chief minister on Friday after holding the post for less than four months.

Rawat handed over the resignation letter to Governor Baby Rani Maurya past 11 pm, hours after returning from Delhi where he was summoned by the top BJP leadership on Wednesday.

The Uttarakhand BJP legislature party will meet Saturday to elect its new leader, who will be later sworn in as the next CM of the state where assembly elections are due early next year.

Tirath Singh Rawat had replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat on March 10 after he was similarly asked by the party to step down.

The Constitution required Rawat, who is an MP, to get elected as a member of the state Assembly within six months to continue as CM.

But there seemed increasing uncertainty over the Election Commission holding bypolls for the two vacant seats in the state when there is less than a year to go before the next assembly elections.

Rawat met party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, amid speculation of another leadership change in the hill state.

Returning to Dehradun, he addressed a press conference in Dehradun on Friday night.

Contrary to expectations, he did not announce his resignation there. But shortly after the press meet he drove to the Raj Bhawan.

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