A day after the Uttarakhand Assembly floor test, in which Congress emerged as the winner, the central government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it will revoke President’s rule in the hill state.
The Centre said that Mr. Rawat, who had led the State’s Congress-led government before his ouster on March 27, is to be restored as Chief Minister the very moment President’s rule is revoked on Wednesday.
“Rawat gets 33 votes out of 61 in the floor test. No irregularities were found in the voting. 9 MLAs could not vote due to their disqualification,” an apex court bench said and directed revocation of the President’s rule forthwith so that 68-year-old Rawat can assume office as Chief Minister.
Celebrations broke out in Dehradun the moment the news trickled in from the court that Rawat has won the trial of strength in the Assembly yesterday which was carried out on the instructions of the Supreme Court.
The developments have come as a major loss of face for the Modi Government at the Centre which had dismissed the Congress government and imposed President’s rule after nine Congress MLAs sided with the BJP on the Appropriation Bill.
“I expect better cooperation from the Centre and thus, I will soon meet Prime Minister and Finance Minister,” Rawat said.
Rawat highlighted the timing of the Centre’s decision to impose the President’s rule in the state. He claimed that it has obstructed the development
works in the state. His plea was that April month always remains an important time for a government to take forward the development works.
“Uttarakhand has already suffered a lot. Aage kee sari Line bigad gai (it derailed the state from the path of development,” Rawat said. He gave assurance that he would take corrective measures after returning to power.
A jubilant Congress, which had started celebrating right after the vote, called it the “victory of democracy”. Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Hope Modiji learns his lesson-ppl of this country &the institutions built by our founding fathers will not tolerate the murder of democracy!”
Mr. Rawat had challenged the decision in one court after another; the Congress and other parties accused the BJP of misusing its powers to remove a democratically-elected government just because it was that of an opposition party.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that Mr. Rawat must be given a chance to prove that he still has a majority in the state legislature.
