Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya on March 9 amid reports of disquiet within the Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit.
Rawat, 60, who would have completed four years in office next week, handed his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya in Dehradun
The party gave me a golden opportunity to serve this State for four years. I had never thought that I would get such an opportunity. The party has now decided that the opportunity to serve as CM should be given to someone else now: Trivendra Singh Rawat, BJP in Dehradun pic.twitter.com/cwj36xkSZd— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2021
The Governor has accepted the resignation. But Rawat will be acting CM until a new CM takes charge.
"While accepting his resignation, I have asked him to be the acting CM till a new CM is appointed and takes charge," Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya was quoted by ANI.
The BJP legislature party meeting is scheduled to be held at 10 am on March 1o. BJP leaders including Dhan Singh Rawat, Ajay Bhatt, and Anil Baluni are front runners to replace the incumbent CM.
Rawat met BJP president JP Nadda in New Delhi on march 8 hours after home minister Amit Shah had several rounds of talks with the party chief, and other leaders.
Rawat is the second BJP chief minister, after Gujarat's Anandiben Patel, since 2014 to resign ahead of the tenure completion. Anandiben's removal was, however, attributed to her old age.
Rawat also joins the league of former chief ministers of Uttarakhand who failed to complete their five-year term. The only Uttarakhand CM who could complete the five-year tenure was late ND Tiwari who assumed the top post in the hill state between 2002 and 2007.
Rawat was summoned to New Delhi two days after an unscheduled core committee meeting of the state unit of BJP fueled speculations about a possible change in guard in the state amid discontent within a section of the party MLAs and MPs over his style of functioning.
Before the New Delhi visit, a sudden meeting of Uttarakhand BJP's core committee was presided over by party’s national vice president and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on March 6. Singh landed in Uttarakhand along with state BJP in-charge Dushyant Kumar Gautam.
The BJP came to power by bagging 57 seats in the 70-member Uttarakhand legislative assembly in 2017 .
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