Harish Rawat claims support of 34 MLAs, challenges President's rule in High Court

 Dislodged Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Monday mounted a legal challenge to the imposition of President s rule and demanded its revocation as Congress sparred with BJP accusing the Centre of toppling its government ahead of a floor test in the Assembly.

Describing the decision as a "brazen display of high- handedness and authoritarianism", Rawat filed a petition in the Uttarakhand High Court seeking quashing of the Presidential proclamation.
However, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley put the blame squarely on the Congress for the "Constitutional crisis" in the state and accused the Speaker of declaring as passed a "defeated" appropriation bill and then failing to certify the "falsehood".

"This leaves the state without any approved financial expenditure with effect from 1st April, 2015," he wrote in a "Facebook" blog titled "A State without a Budget". Rawat's petition came up before the single bench of Justice U C Dhyani, who after hearing both sides for close to four hours, said the matter would be taken up again tomorrow.

"Invocation of Art 356 of the Constitution in Uttarakhand is absolutely illegal, arbitrary and malafide and therefore its invocation should be quashed and Harish Rawat government restored," senior Supreme Court counsel Abhishek Manu Sanghvi contended before the petition. Questioning the timing of the move, Singhvi said it was meant to sabotage the Constitutional process.

On the ground, Rawat made a show of strength before Governor K K Paul when he led a march of 34 MLAs owing allegiance to him and claimed he had the numbers to prove his majority. He sought Governor's permission to prove his majority in the Assembly.

MLAs who went along with Rawat included 26 of the Congress, five of the Progressive Democratic Front(PDF) and one nominated member of the state Assembly. A letter claiming support of 34 MLAs was also handed over to the Governor. Govind Singh Kunjwal, the Speaker of the state Assembly, which is now in suspended animation, was not part of the MLAs who met the Governor while PDF member Sarbat Karim Ansari was absent due to personal reasons.

"Congress still enjoys a majority in the state Assembly and it should have been given an opportunity to prove this on the floor of the House," Congress MLA Indira Hridayesh told reporters soon after meeting the Governor. "We have the support of 34 MLAs and we are in a majority.

We have given this information to the Governor," she said. Nine party rebels, who had revolted against the Rawat government were disqualified by Speaker on Sunday. reducing the effective strength of the House to 61 from 70.