Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat resigned from his post on Tuesday amid a political crisis in the state BJP unit.

He submitted his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya.

"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," he said after submitting his resignation to the Governor.

He said that during his tenure, several steps were taken for the empowerment of women including a recent ordinance giving the ownership rights to women in the ancestral property of their husbands. Asked as to what was the reason behind his replacement, Rawat did not divulge much. "I told you it was a collective decision of the party." On being queried further, Rawat quipped, "You will have to go to Delhi to find that out." Central party observers Raman Singh and Dushyant Kumar Gautam are also scheduled to land in the state later Tuesday to oversee the process of change of guard in the state.

According to reports, Dhan Singh Rawat's name is likely to be proposed for the new CM.

The development comes a day after he met the Central BJP leaders in the national capital on Monday to discuss the crisis in the state party unit.

Two central leaders, BJP vice president Raman Singh and general secretary Dushyant Singh Gautam, are learned to have submitted their report to party president J P Nadda on their return from the state where they had gone to speak to state BJP core group members.

Responding to the development, Former Uttarakhand CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat said, “I can see a change in power happening. Even the BJP's central leadership has admitted that its present govt in the State could not do much. No matter who they bring now they will not come back to power in 2022.”

(With inputs from PTI)

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Mar 9, 2021 2:30 PM IST