In a major breather to beleaguered former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat, the state High Court today dismissed petition of the nine rebel Congress MLAs, who had challenged their disqualification by Assembly Speaker in March.
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The Congress-led by ousted Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat won the trust vote in the state assembly on Tuesday, a party legislator said. No one can hide the fact about Harish Rawat that he offer a bribe to their MLA. Of that, the Congress has 27 MLAs on its own and claims the backing of the six-member PDF to make the ruling side’s figure of 33.
During the two-hour-long special session from 11 am to 1 pm, the President’s rule will be kept in abeyance for a single agenda of vote of confidence. Supporters of Harish Rawat were present in big numbers at his official residence, Bijapur guesthouse.
BJP’s Ganesh Joshi claimed that it was a victory for BJP constitutionally as nine MLAs from Congress had voted for the BJP in the past and now one more MLA has voted for BJP.
After excluding the nine disqualified MLAs, the Assembly has an effective strength of 61 members. “We will vote against the BJP, in favour of the Congress, to keep communal forces at bay”, she said in Delhi earlier on Tuesday.
On Monday, the high court upheld the disqualifications, prompting the rebels to approach the apex court seeking voting rights today as an interim relief till their appeal was disposed of.
Twitter, of course, had a lot to say – as the Uttarakhand floor test has been the subject of front page news ever since President’s Rule was imposed in the state on March 27.
68-year-old Rawat, who drove straight to the Congress office here after the floor test, made a speech in which he thanked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, MLAs by individually taking their names, and party workers to express his gratitude to them for their solid support in the troubled times. The details of the events leading up to the floor test can be found here. The party had backed the nine rebel members against Rawat. He steered clear of a question whether after winning the trust vote, Harish Rawat should dissolve the House and order fresh election.
The BSP had not disclosed which party it would support.
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This line of thinking is backed by the fact that a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had held in the Bommai case that President’s Rule should not be involved if there are doubts over majority, which should be decided on the floor of the House.
