Deposed CM Rawat welcomes order for a floor test in assembly

DEHRADUN: Former chief minister Harish Rawat on Tuesday welcomed the high court directive for a floor test, saying it was a “tremendous setback” for those who destabilised his government with horse-trading. “Its order will also put a stop to the way the Centre has been trying to remove Congress governments in states by imposing President’s Rule,” Rawat said.

Rawat moved the high court against President’s Rule on Monday. The Nainital high court on Tuesday granted the Congress government a chance to prove its majority in a trial of strength on March 31.

Uttarakhand plunged in political crisis after nine Congress legislators supported the BJP in its demand for a conscience vote on the Money Bill during the budget session on March 18. The nine rebels have been permitted to vote, but their choice will be secret and only revealed a day after the floor test. But the BJP said it will challenge the floor test order.

Rawat lauded the order as a rejection of the Centre’s attempts to prevent Congress from proving majority in the Assembly, and a setback for people looking to “destroy constitutional traditions by money and muscle power”.

“The court order won’t just help check the atmosphere of political instability in the state,” he said. “It will also set a precedent for other states that are passing through the traumatic experience we had to go through due to the imposition of President’s Rule.”

Sharing Rawat’s apprehension over the BJP’s alleged campaign to weaken opposition-led state governments, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said he had learnt from a senior official that the next target would be Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and then the Aam Aadmi Party government in the national capital. “I am told they will disqualify 21 of our (AAP) legislators from the Delhi assembly and buy over 23 others,” he said, accusing the BJP of using money power to subdue the Opposition.