Harish Rawat will walk into the Assembly in Dehradun on Tuesday on a confident note to face the floor test, after the Uttarakhand High Court and the Supreme Court refused to give relief to nine Congress MLAs who have been barred from voting in the show of strength.
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Tuesday’s vote was called to prove whether or not Rawat enjoyed majority support after the defection by nine Congress legislators reduced his state government to a minority in the 72-member house.
The proceedings of the floor test were video-graphed and the results of the voting will be placed before the Supreme Court tomorrow in a sealed cover.
Supporting Rawat was also a tactical part of Mayawati’s gameplan for the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly election. “On tenth, the majority will go against Congress and the new government will be formed by BJP”, party leader Bhagat Singh Koshyari told reporters.
President’s rule was lifted for the duration of the floor test, which was from 11 a.m.to 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
Independent MLA Harish Chandra Durgapal claimed that all six PDF (two BSP, one UKD and three independents) members voted for Rawat.
On March 21, Uttarakhand state Congress expelled former CM Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna and party’s general secretary Anil Gupta. The Centre used the opportunity to impose President’s rule in the state, an action that drew widespread criticism from opposition parties. “I have shared only our victory in the floor test with the media from whom nothing can be hidden”. He thanked his MLAs, the Supreme Court, his state, the four dhams of Uttarakhand. Before the trust vote too, the PDF had pledged support for Mr. Rawat.
Earlier in the day the Uttarakhand High Court had dismissed their plea against which they rushed to the Supreme Court.
One Congress legislator defected to the BJP side while one BJP MLA defected to the Congress benches.
Many Congress leaders, however, said in private that they had won the vote and would be vindicated when the top court announces the result.
BJP alleges horse-trading by Congress, says the ruling party bribed 12 MLAs to win the floor test.
Ousted chief minister Harish Rawat will need at least 32 members for claiming his majority on the floor.
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The legislative exercise was conducted for almost an hour with heavy deployment of security personnel around the Assembly and people other than members of the House and its employees not allowed into its precincts.
