Tirath’s tenure as CM ends in just 4 months

Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as chief minister of Uttarakhand on Friday after a four-month stint marred by controversy, including allowing the Mahakumbh during a devastating surge in Covid infections, and large-scale fraud in testing during the holy event

Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as chief minister of Uttarakhand on Friday after a four-month stint marred by controversy, including allowing the Mahakumbh during a devastating surge in Covid infections, and large-scale fraud in testing during the holy event.

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The 57-year-old leader’s resignation came days after he was summoned to Delhi by the BJP leadership and met Union home minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda. The hill state goes to the polls in early 2022.

Rawat suggested he resigned because the Election Commission was unlikely to hold by-elections due to Covid-19. An EC official, however, indicated that no request was made to hod a bypoll, and suggested there were precedents that may have permitted it.

A CM, if not a member of the assembly, needs to be elected within six months of assuming the post – a process that was seen as tough for two reasons: the EC does not typically hold bypolls to vacant constituencies (a possible route he could have taken) when the assembly’s term ends in less than a year, and holding an election amid Covid-19 would be risky.

“I must express my gratitude to the party’s central leadership which has given many responsibilities from time to time. I have been MLC, MLA, MP, party state president and recently chief minister. I thank my party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the core of my heart,” he said after submitting his resignation to the governor.

State BJP president Madan Kaushik said the party legislative party will meet at 3pm on Saturday and decide on the new leader. “The new leader will be an MLA”, he said

Rawat arrived in Delhi on Wednesday and met Nadda and Shah. On Friday, he met Nadda for a second time before arriving back in Uttarakhand, where he hurriedly called a press conference in the evening. At the briefing, he listed achievements of his short tenure.

A little before 11.30pm, he reached the Governor’s residence and submitted his resignation. Rawat’s is the shortest term for an Uttarakhand CM.

State BJP president Madan Kaushik said the legislative party will meet at 3pm on Saturday and decide on a new leader. “The new leader will be an MLA”, he said. Separately, in Delhi, functionaries in the central BJP said Narendra Singh Tomar will be the central observer at the meeting.

The BJP has 56 MLAs in the 70-member house. Rawat, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Garhwal in 2019, was elevated as the ninth CM of the hill state in March after his predecessor, Trivendra Singh Rawat, resigned due to infighting in the state unit.

In his short term, Rawat quickly courted controversy with his critical views on women’s clothing and saying that the waters of the Ganga could prevent infections.

He also allowed the Mahakumbh to go ahead in Haridwar without any restrictions in April despite doctors warning that lack of social distancing and violation of Covid norms could trigger a surge in cases across the country.

In all, 9.1 million people took the holy dip – at least six million of them in April, coinciding with the peak of the second wave – and officials in many other north Indian states traced local infection surges to Kumbh returnees. The Uttarakhand high court sharply criticised the government for green-lighting the event.

A month later, a Faridkot resident complained to the authorities that he received a message for collecting his Covid report despite never having been tested. The complaint triggered a probe that unearthed roughly 100,000 fake rapid antigen tests, and cast a shadow on the role of the mela authorities and local administration.

Facing mounting pressure from Opposition and some members of his party, Rawat said the irregularities occurred before his tenure, prompting a sharp denial from Trivendra Rawat.

The controversies were likely to hurt the BJP’s prospects of securing a second consecutive term in assembly elections just months away.

“Because of the vested interest of leaders of BJP, the future of Uttarakhand has become uncertain and people of the state are suffering. BJP doesn’t care about the development of state but only for how to grab the power by any means,” said Congress state general secretary Vijay Saraswat.

According to an EC official who asked not to be named, either the state or the chief minister has to petition the poll panel to conduct elections that are necessary to meet the constitutional requirements. “The election commission can hold by-elections even if the general elections are less than a year away. There is no rule barring it. But in case there is a situation like Uttarakhand where the chief minister’s continuation in office depends on the bypoll, the state has to petition the poll panel which will then take a call on the elections,” the official said.

Political commentators said the change of a CM for the second time in a year could dent BJP’s electoral prospects when polls take place next year. SMA Kazmi, a Dehradun-based political analyst, said the resignation could further increase political instability and various equations between Kumaon and Garhwal regions would have to be reset on the basis of region and Thakur-Brahmin axis.