U’khand crisis: Harish Rawat to meet Congress top brass today

New Delhi: Amid the growing power tussle in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Harish Rawat will arrive in New Delhi today to meet the Congress leadership, apprising them of the current political condition in the state and discuss the next course of action.

Meanwhile, rebel Congress MLA Harak Singh Rawat has written to Uttarakhand Governor KK Paul, urging him to call an Assembly Session tomorrow for the floor test.

Paul has given Rawat time till March 28 to prove his majority and that has given time to Congress to deal with the nine rebel MLAs.

The Congress government in the state is under threat with 9 MLAs rebelling against Rawat and the BJP, which has 27 MLAs, staking claim to form the government.

Rawat had earlier asserted that Uttarakhand was his priority before anything else and if he was not able to prove majority, then he would promptly offer his resignation.

“I will prove my majority on the floor of the House. I am a democratic individual and the moment I lose my majority, I will offer my resignation. The BJP is flustered right now keeping 2019 in mind, which is why they are attacking our government,” Rawat said.

Lashing at out the Centre over the Uttarakhand power crisis, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi yesterday asserted that the blatant attempt to topple governments was the true face of the party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Toppling elected Govts by indulging in horse trading & blatant misuse of money & muscle, seems to be BJP’s new model, after failure in Bihar. This attack on our democracy & Constitution, first in Arunachal & now Uttarakhand, is the true face of Modiji’s BJP. Congress Party will fight demagoguery with democracy,” The Office on Rahul Gandhi said in a series of tweet.

In a strong rebuttal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that the Sonia Gandhi-led party had ‘lowered its level of ambition and was quite content in becoming the tail ender of any alliance’ be it in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal or Bihar.

“As far as Assam is concerned, we have formed an alliance and we are the leaders of that alliance. We will score a decisive victory there as we have significantly grown there,” Jaitley said.

Talking about the political crisis in Uttarakhand at the present, he added that there was a deep division prevalent within the Congress in the state and that could not be attributed to the BJP in any way.

Earlier, Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjal issued showcause notices to the nine rebel Congress legislators, who joined the BJP leaders when they went to meet Governor KK Paul seeking the dismissal of the Harish Rawat -led government. (ANI)