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Governor asks CM Rawat to prove majority by March 28

Earlier in the day, the BJP said it has a majority in the Uttarakhand Assembly and should be invited to form a government as the incumbent Congress dispensation was reduced to a minority.

“The Harish Rawat government has lost majority. Today, the BJP has the numbers with the support of rebel Congress MLAs to form a new government in Uttarakhand,” Shyam Jaju, State in-charge of BJP, said.

Jaju said the party was willing to present the MLAs whose support it enjoyed before President Pranab Mukherjee and insisted that Rawat should immediately resign given the loss of majority.

Nine rebel Congress MLAs have arrived in Delhi and were in touch with BJP leaders, he said.

 Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday lashed out at the BJP over the political developments in Uttarakhand, accusing it of “horse-trading” and terming the party as “corrupt, anti-national and power hungry”.

“Brazen horse trading-first Arunachal now Uttarakhand. BJP proving to be most corrupt, deshdrohi and power hungry party,” the AAP leader tweeted.

Kejriwal also took a dig at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the tax proposals on PF and jewellers. “First tax on PF, then tax on jewellers. It seems Jaitleyji has decided to embarrass Modiji.”

Kejriwal appeared to liken the instability in Uttarakhand to the earlier developments in Arunachal Pradesh, where President’s Rule was imposed in January for a brief period. He had termed the imposition of President’s Rule as “murder” of the Constitution.

The four-year-old Rawat government is under threat with nine rebel Congress MLAs raising the banner of revolt and joining the BJP.

The rebel MLAs included, the Congress has a strength of 36 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly. The ruling party also has the support of six members of the Progressive Democratic Front. The BJP has 28 MLAs.

A three-member BJP delegation of former Chief Minister and MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Jaju and general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya met Governor K K Paul on Friday night after the simmering discontent within a section of Congress legislature came to the fore on a day of fast-paced developments in the hill state.

Amidst chaos in the Assembly, nine Congress rebels joined the BJP in demanding a division of votes on the state’s annual budget, which could have led to the government’s fall.

Congress MLA from Rudraprayag, Harak Singh Rawat claimed the finance bill in connection with the 
budget had fallen, thus giving clear indication that the ruling party has been reduced to a minority with 35 votes against the budget and 32 in its favour.

Rebel Congress MLAs seen raising anti-government slogans along with BJP were mostly those owing allegiance to former Chief Minister and MLA Vijay Bahuguna. The other eight were Harak Singh Rawat, Amrita Rawat, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, Shaila Rani Rawat, Pradip Batra, Subodh Uniyal, a confirmed Bahuguna loyalist, Shailendra Mohan Singhal and Umesh Sharma.
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