Home > News > PTI
Uttaranchal Cabinet minister quits over alleged links with unwed mother
June 19, 2003 02:32 IST
Uttaranchal Revenue Minister Harak Singh Rawat on Wednesday resigned amid allegations of his links with an unwed mother, within hours after the issue rocked the state assembly.
"I am resigning. I will not enter the Vidhan Sabha till I come clean," Rawat said in a choked voice as he announced his resignation in the state assembly, repeatedly breaking down during his ten-minute speech.
He accused opposition members as well as some members of the ruling Congress of 'conspiring' against him in the episode.
Earlier, the Uttaranchal assembly witnessed high drama when opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party members raised the issue of Rawat's alleged affair with a woman from Assam who had given birth to a boy on Sunday.
The opposition members did not take Rawat's name, but stormed the well of the house, shouting slogans on the minister's links with the unwed mother, forcing Speaker Yashpal Arya to adjourn the house repeatedly.
After adjourning the house for four times, Arya convened an all-party meeting on the issue.
He sent a five-member fact-finding house committee to talk to the unmarried woman.
The committee submitted its report to Arya stating that the woman had named Rawat as the father of her child.