Over a week after nine rebel MLAs in the Uttarakhand Congress posed a threat to their own government by siding with the BJP, the State’s BJP MLAs residing in Jaipur on Friday said they were “confident” that the Harish Rawat government will fall. After the March 18 incident, the majority of the rebel Congress legislators, other party MLAs and BJP MLAs have stayed away from Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand. However, most of the loyalist Congress MLAs, have been sequestered at the Corbett National Park in Nainital district of Uttarakhand. The BJP MLAs have shifted out of Uttarakhand and are currently residing in Jaipur.
On March 28, Mr. Rawat will have to prove in the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha that his party is in majority so that the Congress remains in power in the hill State.
Mr. Rawat has been telling the media that he was confident that the Congress will be able to prove its majority. However, the 27 BJP MLAs, who visited Pushkar in Rajasthan on Friday, told media persons that they were sure that Mr. Rawat would fail the floor test.
The Congress currently has 36 MLAs and the BJP 28 in the 70-member Assembly. Six other MLAs from the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) currently support the Congress.
Eight out of the nine rebel MLAs, who have been served show-cause notice by Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal asking them why they should not be disqualified from the Congress, approached the Nainital High Court seeking more time to respond. However, on Friday, the court dismissed their petition.
The MLAs are required to respond to the notices by Saturday evening. However, since the High Court has turned down the petition, the MLAs are expected to approach the Supreme Court, sources said.
