Dehradun/New Delhi: Uttarakhand Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal has issued notices to nine rebel Congress MLAs asking them why they should not be disqualified from the House even as Arun Jaitley and Rahul Gandhi sparred over the political crisis in the hill state.
The BJP, meanwhile, claimed 35 MLAs including 26 from the party and nine from Congress had alre-ady given a notice for a no-confidence motion against the Speaker to the Vidhan Sabha Secretary for his alleged failure to conduct the House in an impartial manner even before he issued the notices to the rebel Congress MLAs.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat while training his guns on the BJP said they are “killing” democracy.
“BJP with the support of their party at Centre is trying to destabilise the state governments. They are killing democracy. They talk of cooperative federalism and they target the Opposition selectively,” he said.
It’s all Modi’s game: Rahul Gandhi
Notices have been issued to the nine rebel Congress MLAs following a request from party chief whip and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh seeking action against them for violating the party whip in the state Assembly during voting on the Finance Bill.
The notices have been pasted on the walls of the houses of the MLAs concerned which asks them to submit their replies to the Speaker by March 26 evening.
However, Pradesh BJP president and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Bhatt said as a notice of no-confidence has already been moved against the Speaker he should quit his post.
Using the Uttarakhand crisis to escalate his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP, Rahul Gandhi said it has exposed the “true face of Modiji’s BJP” and that “toppling” governments by “blatant use of money” seems to be the ruling party’s new model.
“Toppling elected government by indulging in horse trading seems to be BJP’s model, after failure in Bihar”. “Congress will fight demagoguery with democracy. This attack on our democracy & Constitution, first in Arunachal & now Uttarakhand, is the true face of Modiji’s BJP,” he said.
