Uttarakhand was placed under President's Rule by the Centre in March, a day before Harish Rawat was to take a trust vote to prove his majority.
Highlights
- Uttarakhand was placed under President's Rule by the Centre in March
- Harish Rawat was to take a floor test to prove his majority the next day
- High Court struck down President's Rule, Centre appealed to Supreme Court
Harish Rawat of the Congress will get a chance to prove he has a majority in the Uttarakhand assembly through a vote of confidence on Tuesday, May 10, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The court also said that as of today, nine rebel lawmakers of the Congress cannot vote in Tuesday's floor test as they were "rightly or wrongly" disqualified by the Speaker in Uttarakhand, which is currently under President's Rule.
If the nine dissidents do not vote, Mr Rawat will have to prove the support of only 31 lawmakers as the strength of the 70-member house will be down to 61. But the rebels have challenged their disqualification in the Uttarakhand High Court and if it rules in their favour tomorrow, they can vote on Tuesday.
Harish Rawat, whose government was dismissed when the
Centre enforced President's Rule in the state, signaled that he is confident about the numbers. "All our members are with us, there is no doubt," he said today.
President's Rule in Uttarakhand will be suspended on Tuesday for the floor test, which will be held between 11am and 1 pm; the top court will appoint an observer and the entire proceedings will be videographed.
The BJP-ruled Centre says Harish Rawat lost his majority when the nine Congress dissidents voted against his government's annual budget on April 18. It also says that a video claiming to show Mr Rawat trying to bribe the Congress dissidents to return to the party fold is more proof of a "constitutional crisis" justifying President's Rule in Uttarakhand.
"I want to once again clarify that I've never indulged in horse-trading. It is a lie propagated by the BJP," said Harish Rawat, who has been
summoned by the CBI for interrogation, reportedly because the footage has been established as authentic.
The Uttarakhand High Court indicted the Centre for wrongly declaring President's Rule in a heavy-handed attempt to remove an opposition government; the Centre has challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court.