Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday handed over his resignation to Governor Baby Rani Maurya, the move seen as the BJP's course-correction ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

The former chief minister apparently met the BJP leadership in Delhi on Monday and had a series of discussions.

Speculation had been rife about the 60-year-old politician being replaced by one of his ministers as chief minister. Significantly, the central BJP leadership recently sent two observers, party vice president Raman Singh and general secretary Dushayant Kumar Gautam, to Uttarakhand to get a feedback from the party’s core group in the state amid reports of discontent against the chief minister.

The feedback made the party believe that TS Rawat’s below par performance would cost the party in 2022 election.

According to an NDTV report, Dhan Singh Rawat, who was in Garhwal, took a private chopper to state capital Dehradun Tuesday afternoon.

He even had a meeting with BJP chief JP Nadda, who had earlier held talks with Home Minister Amit Shah on the situation in the hill state, indicated the report.

Apparently several Uttarakhand MLAs had reportedly told the leadership that the party did not stand a chance of being re-elected under Rawat’s leadership.

Often the former CM’s critics accuse him of “failing to communicate with them” and lack of decision-making. Several MLAs even altered the party heads about him being ranked “below average” by some opinion polls.