Less than six months after taking oath as Uttarakhand’s new chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat has tendered his resignation from his post.

With deadline approaching for by-poll which can be tough to be conducted during ongoing pandemic, especially after the flak received by ECI from judiciary, CM Tirath Rawat offered resignation.

Tirath Singh Rawat wrote a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national president JP Nadda wherein he has offered to resign in order to avoid a Constitutional crisis in the state.

Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar was asked by the BJP to go to Dehradun on July 03 as an observer. 

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On March10, Tirath Rawat, an MP from Pauri Garhwal was sworn in as Chief Minister. He had replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat as the CM. As per constitution, he needs to become a member of the state assembly before September 10 to continue in office. Since Uttarakhand does not have a legislative council, direct election remained as the only way through which he could continue in office. Gangotri and Haldwani are the only two vacant seats in the assembly. Gangotri became vacant after BJP MLA Gopal Singh Rawat died. The seat of Haldwani became vacant after the death of leader of opposition Indira Hridayesh.

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There were speculations that Rawat could have been fielded from Gangotri to retain the seat. But, given the Covid19 situation, the election commission of India may not conduct a by-poll. The poll body has faced caustic criticism from judiciary, especially the Madras High Court with regards to mishandling the election in the time of pandemic. This may have been behind the decision to not announce by-polls for Uttarakhand.

Election commission of India is mandated by section 151A of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 to fill up the vacancies in the parliament and the state legislatures through bypolls. The bypolls need to be conducted within six months of the occurrence of the vacancies, given that the remaining term of the new member is one year or more.

The Article 164 (4) of the Constitution reads, “A minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the legislature of the state shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a minister.”

This condition applies to Tirath Rawat too, since chief minister is also a minister.

If he was not elected to the legislative assembly by September 10, Uttarakhand would have stared at a constitutional crisis.

It has been asserted by sources that the criticism faced by the election commission was behind the poll body not yet deciding on the dates of the by-polls.

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MS Chauhan, BJP MLA from Vikasnagar and former spokesperson of the party’s state unit stated, “It is within the scope and ambit of the election commission to take a call on whether or not to hold a bypoll in the state. Everything depends on the election commission of India.”

The centre is also not pushing much for the by-polls as there are other states where by-polls need to be conducted and BJP-ruled Uttarakhand cannot be made an exception.