New Delhi: Ousted Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat flashed victory signs as he seemed to have edged past the BJP in the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Tuesday.
The BJP, that was gunning for Mr Rawat with a series of stings, retreated quietly to the shadows as some of its members, particularly MLA Ganesh Joshi, admitted defeat. “The BJP couldn’t defeat the Congress in the numbers game,” he told reporters after the Assembly proceedings were videographed on the Supreme Court’s orders.
The result of the floor test will be announced in the Supreme Court at around 10.30 am on Wednesday. Congress MLA Sarita Arya claimed that 33 MLAs had voted for Mr Rawat while BJP MLAs conceded that only 28 had voted for them.
One MLA each of rival sides — BJP’s Bhimlal Arya and the Congress’ Rekha Arya — were believed to have cross-voted for the other side.
The 33 MLAs who voted for the Congress included six of the PDF, comprising two BSP MLAs, one from UKD and three Independents. What seemed to have swung the trial of strength in favour of the Congress was BSP supremo Mayawati’s calculated move to support the Congress.
With her eyes focused firmly on the Muslim vote ahead of next year's Assembly polls in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the BSP chief took this step as a pre-Uttar Pradesh poll drill.
