Dehra Dun, March 4
N.D. Tiwari, who has been sulking for quiet sometime for allegedly being marginalised in Congress hierarchy, today quit as Uttaranchal Chief Minister and sent his resignation to party President Sonia Gandhi.
Eightyone-year-old Tiwari, who kept away from the AICC plenary in Hyderabad in January, told reporters that he was growing old and wanted Gandhi to relieve him from office within a month.
The Congress veteran, who was chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh four times and had served in the Union Cabinet, was not nominated to the all-powerful Congress Working Committee which was reconstituted ahead of the plenary.
AICC had been praising the work carried out by him and his government in the newly formed state and had dismissed reports of him being replaced and made a Governor.
"I have turned 81 and there is no person of my age serving as chief minister in the country," Tiwari said, expressing the desire to quit from active politics ahead of the Assembly elections in the state due early next year.
He, however, said he would continue to participate in social service.
Significantly, Tiwari's statement came as a no surprise since he had made similar announcements in the past three years in the face of growing differences within the ruling Congress.
PCC president Harish Rawat, a known Tiwari detractor, was not available for comments as he was touring the state along with senior Congress leader Motilal Vora.
— PTI
