Dehradun/New Delhi: A week to go for the trial of strength in Uttarakhand, Congress on Monday expelled former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket and another leader for “anti-party” activities as beleaguered Chief Minister Harish Rawat accused the Centre of destabilising his government.
The Congress and the BJP have also decided to knock the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee when their delegations will meet and put their cases before him.
The action against Saket, whose father rebelled and voted against the government in the assembly on Friday, and Congress joint secretary Anil Gupta came after they were accused of siding with the nine MLAs who rebelled against the Rawat government.
Addressing a press conference in Dehradun, Harish Rawat accused the BJP-led Central government of “killing democracy” by using its brute majority to cause “political instability” in a small state and the BJP of using “money and muscle” power.
This, he said, was not good for the state as it may see a new Chief Minister every year and the dreams of the hill state will be shattered.
Meanwhile, a delegation headed by former Defence Minister A K Antony will meet the President and complain against the “game of destabilisation” indulged in by the BJP. It will include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motilal Vora, Ambika Soni, Ahmed Patel and Kapil Sibal.
On the rival side, all BJP MPs from the state and 35 MLAs including Vijay Bahuguna and sacked minister Harak Singh Rawat and seven Congress rebel MLAs, will march from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhawan. Their delegation headed by party leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Shyam Jaju will call on him and seek dismissal of the Rawat government.
BJP claims that it has the support of 36 MLAs, including the nine rebel Congressmen, in a House of 70. BJP leaders say that the Rawat Government in the state has already lost the vote of confidence during the passage of the finance bill and is demanding its dismissal.
They will also complain against the conduct of Uttarakhand Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, who announced passage of finance bill through voice vote and disallowed the division of votes.
BJP today accused the Speaker of working as Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s “agent” and asked him resign if he had even an iota of self respect left in him.
“By disallowing a division of votes on the finance bill in the House, the Speaker deprived the members of their right to vote as he knew the majority was against it and it was bound to fall.
“This proves that he was acting as an agent of the state government and not the Speaker of the Assembly who is supposed to rise above political considerations to discharge his Constitutional duties in a non-partisan manner,” Pradesh BJP spokesman Munna Singh Chauhan said.
Alleging that by siding with the state government the Speaker had not been true to his constitutional obligations, Chauhan said, “He has no moral right to preside over the proceedings of the state Assembly as he has brought his office into disrepute. He should resign immediately if he has even an iota of self-respect left in him. Questioning the justification of the Speaker issuing notices to the nine rebel Congress MLAs recently for violating party whip, Chauhan said he cannot do this at a time when 35 members of the House had already given the notice for a motion of no confidence against him.
Chauhan also refuted allegations against BJP’s central leadership of destabilising a democratically elected government in the state saying the Congress government in the state was collapsing due to its own inherent contradictions. “The government is coming apart as it has lost confidence of its own MLAs and ministers because of the Chief Minister’s autocratic and arrogant style of governance. Blaming Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for the crisis is not fair. Is it BJP’s responsibility to keep Congress’ house in order?”‘ he quipped.
Upadhyay said the party will not accept indiscipline and strict action will be taken against those who violate discipline. (PTI)
