Top BJP brass meets, govt to move SC

Rattled by the Nainital high court order, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)  chief Amit Shah and senior ministers on Thursday went into a huddle and decided that the Centre would move the Supreme Court on Friday, challenging the verdict quashing the proclamation of President’s rule.

After the meeting, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was present in the meeting, said he would mention the matter before the Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur on Friday morning and seek a stay on the HC verdict.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a legal luminary himself, Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, besides Rohatgi met at Shah’s house and deliberated on the implications of the HC order and the options before the party and the government.

Sources said that Jaitley, who returned from the US earlier in the day, and others felt that there were enough grounds to challenge the order, which was being seen as a big blow to the Centre.

They said the Centre would tell the Supreme Court that failure of the Appropriation Bill to get approval of the Uttarakhand Assembly and disqualification of nine rebel Congress MLAs “arbitrarily” were some of the grounds to impose President’s rule in the hill state.