This Article is From Mar 21, 2016

Uttarakhand Crisis: BJP Meets President, But Without Rebel Congressmen

President Pranab Mukherjee receives a memorandum from a delegation of BJP MPs & MLAs from Uttarakhand. (PTI Photo)

Highlights

  • President Mukherjee meets BJP, then Congress delegates
  • Congress' 9 rebels are not present at BJP session
  • If Congress loses their support, it is unlikely to remain in power
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention was formally sought this evening in the political crisis in Uttarakhand, with leaders of the Congress government and the opposition BJP separately pitching to run the hill state.

Here are the top 10 developments in this big story:

  1. Nearly all of the BJP's 28 state legislators met the President today after a dramatic march in the heart of the capital.

  2. However, the rebel Congress law-makers whose support is crucial to the BJP's plans to replace the government of Chief Minister Harish Rawat were not part of the meeting.

  3. The Uttarakhand legislature has 70 members. To remain in power, the Congress needs at least 36 members to support it in a trust vote. Without its nine rebels, it slides into a minority.

  4. The BJP, keen to prevent the Congress from managing a rapprochement, wants the Chief Minister to prove his majority in a vote tomorrow, and not on Monday next, as scheduled.

  5. The Congress has today expelled Saket Bahugana, the son of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahugana. It accuses him of "masterminding" the rebellion by nine party lawmakers, who include his father.

  6. Just after the BJP's conference with the President was the turn of senior Congress leaders like Kapil Sibal and AK Antony to make their case - they accuse the BJP of trying to destabilize governments in all states it does not govern.

  7. Mr Rawat has accused the BJP of "using money power to overthrow Chief Ministers, dispensing them like dirty handkerchiefs."

  8. The BJP says the Congress is responsible for the crisis it finds itself in. "There is deep divide within the Congress and should not be attributed to us," said union minister Arun Jaitley.

  9. The Congress says the nine rebels must be disqualified from the Assembly under anti-defection laws. At least two-thirds of a party - in this case, 24 Congress MLAs - must split for them to be recognised as a separate group.

  10. Uttarakhand is one of just eight states now governed by the Congress.



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