Adding to the troubles of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who is facing a crucial trust vote on Monday to prove that his government has the necessary numbers to continue in power, rebel legislators of his own party released a sting video on Saturday accusing him of indulging in horse-trading to save the government, IANS reported.
These legislators were served a notice by speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal two weeks ago, seeking their responses by March 26, on as to why they should not be disqualified from membership of the house for violating party discipline and siding with the opposition BJP.
Congress MLA Harak Singh Rawat, who is the leader of the rebelling faction within the party, alleged that the chief minister was trying to bribe the nine legislators and also a few BJP MLAs. He added that these MLAs were receiving life threats.
Nine Congress legislators led by Harak Singh had rebelled against the chief minister couple of weeks back when they sought a vote division on the floor of the house. The speaker had rejected the demand while the Congress had blamed yoga guru Baba Ramdev and BJP leader Amit Shah of conspiring to lure away Congress MLAs.
“There is an attempt by the CM to bribe the nine rebel MLAs and few other BJP MLAs. The Uttarakhand government is indulging in horse-trading of the MLAs,” Rawat told IANS.
“We have expressed concern over our security to the government of India as we are getting threats. We’ve asked them to make arrangements for us. We have also requested the governor to immediately dismiss such a corrupt government of the mafias,” he added. Rawat further said: “We have also written a letter to the President Pranab Mukherjee to take objection to the whole situation. There is a constitutional crisis in the state.”
Earlier, the Congress had 36 legislators in the 70-member assembly and also the support of six members of the Progressive Democratic Front while the opposition BJP has 28 legislators.
Contact HuffPost India
Also See On HuffPost:
