Congress’ Harish Rawat Wins Uttarakhand Floor Test, Centre Tells Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Congress is set to return to power in Uttarakhand with the Centre acknowledging before the Supreme Court that Harish Rawat had won a trust vote yesterday.

The Centre informed the court that President’s Rule, which it has controversially used in March to remove Mr Rawat, will be lifted.

Mr Rawat had challenged the decision in one court after another; the Supreme Court ruled last week that he must be given a chance to prove that he still has a majority in the state legislature.

The Congress had claimed victory right after the vote yesterday. The court confirmed that Mr Rawat had the support of 33 lawmakers, two more than he needed for majority.

With nine Congress rebels barred from voting, the strength of the 70-member assembly was 61. They had been disqualified by the Speaker a day before the Centre imposed President’s Rule in Uttarakhand on March 27.

The BJP’s Nitin Gadkari said it is “not a setback” for his party. “In a democracy, we have to accept that. It is on the floor of the House as per the decision of the Supreme Court. Uttarakhand Assembly sat and (there is) majority for Congress, so we will co-operate,” the union minister said.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had commented that the Congress’ win is a “huge setback” to the Modi government. “Hope they will stop toppling Govts now (sic),” Mr Kejriwal tweeted.

28 lawmakers voted against Mr Rawat in Tuesday’s trust vote, among them a Congress rebel called Rekha Arya, who was missing for days before turning up at the assembly with BJP leader Ajay Bhatt.

The Congress found support from two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators, three independent lawmakers and one from the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal together called the PDF (Progressive Democratic Front). “All six of us have voted for Harish Rawat,” one of them confirmed.

Harish Rawat was chief minister of Uttarakhand till the Centre imposed President’s Rule on March 27, arguing that he lost his majority when the nine Congress dissidents voted against his government’s annual budget.

The Uttarakhand High Court had indicted the Centre for declaring President’s Rule, accusing it of trying to remove an opposition government. The Centre has challenged that verdict in the Supreme Court.

Kindly send reply or comments on this topic to [email protected]
Source:Ndtv