Vijay Bahuguna blames Harish Rawat for imposition of President's rule in Uttarakhand

DEHRADUN: Holding Harish Rawat responsible for the imposition of President's rule in Uttarakhand, his predecessor Vijay Bahuguna today said this scenario could have been prevented if the deposed Chief Minister had resigned immediately after his government was reduced to a minority in the assembly.

"Rawat himself is to be blamed for imposition of President's rule in Uttarakhand. If he had resigned after his government was reduced to a minority in the state assembly it would not have happened. Someone else from the Congress or some other party would have got a chance to form the government.

"But since he did not resign and the appropriation bill had not been passed by the House, the President was left with no choice but to impose President's rule in the state," Bahuguna told reporters in Haridwar.

Soon after President's rule was imposed in Uttarakhand on March 27, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said it was a fit case for invocation of Article 356 as the appropriation bill had not been passed by the state assembly.

Bahuguna, who was among the nine Congress MLAs who revolted against their own party's government in the state assembly, said they want President's rule to come to an early end in Uttarakhand but everything depends on the High Court which is yet to deliver its verdict on a bunch of petitions related to recent political developments in the state.

Justifying the role played by the nine rebel Congress legislators in the eviction of Rawat government, Bahuguna made an oblique reference to growing morale of mining mafia under Rawat saying, "He (Rawat) dug the state's rivers, we dug his chair."

Congress rebels have been alleging that mining, land and liquor mafia had begun to call the shots in Uttarakhand during Rawat's tenure.