Political Dracula, Tihar Jail Meetings: The Uttarakhand War of Words

New Delhi: The bitter war of words between the Congress and the BJP over Uttarakhand, where President's Rule was imposed on Sunday, has produced some dramatic comments.

Like BJP leader Srikant Sharma's allegation that "the Congress is so seeped in corruption, the next Congress working committee meeting will be held in Tihar Jail".

Or, the Congress' Kishore Upadhyay saying, "Like a political Dracula, the Modi government is sucking the blood out of Congress state governments."

The Congress alleges that the dismissal of its elected government in Uttarakhand and earlier in Arunchal Pradesh shows that the Modi government is working to destabilize Congress governments in states.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Modiji don't let your love of power overrule ppl's mandate. @INCIndia is ready-fight elections, seek ppl's mandate, don't usurp their right."

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The Congress has called the dismissal of its government in Uttarakhand a day before chief minister Harish Rawat was to seek a trust vote in the assembly, a "murder of democracy. It has moved court against the imposition of President's Rule in the state.

"The government of Uttarakhand was murdering provisions of the Constitution every day," retorted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has in a Facebook post today explained at length why imposing President's Rule in the state was the appropriate.

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"Having plunged the state into a serious constitutional crisis by continuing a government which should have quit after the failure of the Appropriation Bill, and further complicating the crisis, the chief minister started allurement, horse-trading and disqualification with a view to altering the composition of the house," Mr Jaitley said.

On Monday, Mr Rawat met Uttarakhand Governor KK Paul to demonstrate that he still has a majority, despite the rebellion of nine lawmakers who have been disqualified from the state assembly by the speaker.