 "ormer Chief Minister Harish Rawat after the end of crucial Uttarakhand Assembly floor test, at party office in Dehradun")
The Congress government in Uttarakhand is likely to be restored after an in-camera floor test in the Assembly on Tuesday suggested Harish Rawat continues to enjoy a majority.
The result of the Supreme Court-monitored floor test will be officially declared on Wednesday, but will only further embarrass the Union government after a series of unfavourable orders on the issue by the Nainital High Court and Supreme Court.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Delhi looked crestfallen, but in their defence continued to question the conduct of the “partisan” Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, calling for a debate on the issue, said there was a need to revisit the Speaker’s role in testing the House majority and implementation of the anti-defection law.
“Any public representative should resign from the House or be disqualified the very next day of changing the party from which they were elected. That is the spirit of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” Naidu said.
Congress leaders were triumphant and raised slogans accusing the government of being “murderers of democracy” in both Houses of Parliament. Congress members in the Rajya Sabha disrupted proceedings to resist the government’s move to get the Uttarakhand budget passed. It is likely that the government will lose Wednesday’s vote on the Uttarakhand budget in the Rajya Sabha. Government strategists, however, took solace in the fact that it is a money Bill that the Lok Sabha has already passed on Monday.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, demanded that the government apologise to the nation. Even Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi [government]. Hope they will stop toppling governments now.”
The BJP expects Rawat to announce several populist measures, recommend dissolution of the Assembly and call for fresh elections.
In a hint that the battle for Uttarakhand wasn’t over yet, sources said the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the sting against Rawat purportedly trying to offer money to his party’s rebel legislators will be a key BJP plank to outmanoeuver Congress.
Emerging from the Vidhan Sabha after the floor test, Congress MLAs claimed Rawat managed to get the support of 33 MLAs against BJP’s 28. BJP legislators concurred with this. The effective strength of the Vidhan Sabha had been reduced to 62 (including one nominated member) after the apex court on Monday refused to stay the disqualification of nine rebel Congress MLAs.
Rekha Arya, Congress MLA from Someshwar, and Bheem Lal Arya, BJP MLA from Ghansali, were alleged to have crossed sides during the floor test. All six members of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), which includes two MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), are said to have voted for Rawat. BSP appeared to have sided with Rawat on the instructions of party chief Mayawati.
Soon after the floor test, Rawat said, “The clouds of uncertainty hanging over Uttarakhand will disappear tomorrow.”
In the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley urged the Congress to pass the Uttarakhand Budget. “The appropriation Bill of the state has to be sanctioned by Parliament as all expenditure from April 1 has to be validated,” he said. Congress opposed this saying the Assembly had passed the Bill.
Congress Member of Parliament Abhishek Manu Singhvi said once the floor test verdict was declared and a government took charge, the Assembly could pass the Budget for that period, retrospectively, in the event of the Parliament not passing it. A euphoric Congress did not allow the Finance Bill to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha. With three days left for the end of the session, the government is keen that Rajya Sabha passes a clutch of important Bills, including the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code.
Congress sources in Dehra Dun said the party was debating whether to hold snap elections in the state. “A section of party leaders want Rawat to go for snap polls and take advantage of the victory,” said a senior Congress leader. However, state Congress Chief Kishore Upadhayay said there was no such plan.
(With inputs from Kavita Chowdhury and Archis Mohan)
