Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat wrote to BJP National President JP Nadda offering to resign to avoid a Constitutional crisis.
This comes less than six months after taking oath as the state’s new chief minister. The severe COVID pandemic amplified the situation amid sharp criticism that the Election Commission and the Central Government faced for holding assembly elections to four states and one union territory earlier this year, with lots of holding a byelection looking gloomy.
If Tirath Singh Rawat does not get elected to the Uttarakhand Assembly by September 10, Uttarakhand would be submerged in a constitutional crisis leaving the situation very unsteady for the BJP.
The BJP has asked Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar to go to Dehradun tomorrow as an observer. The party high command has called a meeting of BJP MLAs. In the meantime, Tirath Singh Rawat has landed at the Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun and will be meeting Governor Baby Rani Maurya soon.
Background to This Situation:
Tirath Singh Rawat took oath as Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister on March 10, replacing Trivendra Singh Rawat. It should be noted that at the time of taking his oath, he was not an elected MLA in the Uttarakhand Assembly, but a Lok Sabha MP representing Pauri Garhwal. He continues to be a Lok Sabha MP at present.
As per the Constitution, a minister or the chief minister has to get elected to the state legislature within six months of taking an oath. He or she can either be elected to the legislative assembly or the legislative council (in states that have two houses). In this case, Uttarakhand does not have any legislative council.
According to Article 164 (4) of the Constitution, “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.”
Since the chief minister is also a minister, this condition applies to him too.
In the case of Tirath Singh Rawat, he has until September 10 to get elected to the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly through a byelection.
Sources say in order to avoid this uncertainty in Uttarakhand, which goes to the polls next year, a way out for the BJP would be to replace Tirath Singh Rawat with a new chief minister. Doing so would cleverly bypass the six-month condition saving them out of the crisis.
The exception to the six-month condition is mentioned in Article 164 (4). Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which states that byelection in the state need not be held in two conditions:
The remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is less than one year
The Election Commission in consultation with the central government certifies that it is difficult to hold the by-election within the said period.
Tirath Singh Rawat in his letter to JP Nadda has referred to Article 164A which mentions the six-month condition. He reportedly is offering to resign in order to avoid a constitutional crisis in the state.
There seems to be another kind of crisis in Uttrakhand where yet another chief minister resigns within 4 months, stunningly bringing out a change of three chief ministers in four years, that too in a small state with a huge 57/70 majority. The Media is strangely silent about this reporting it in a perfunctory manner as if it was a normal occurrence!