With the State remaining abuzz with the President’s Rule and its possible aftermath in the fast-changing political scenario of the State, Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal dealt the blow a few hours after the announcement as he disqualified all the nine dissident Congress MlAs as members of the Vidhan Sabha with immediate effect.
Sources said that though the decision to disqualify them under the anti-defection law had been taken late Saturday evening things were kept a closely guarded secret. With the axe having finally fallen on the renegades, they are set to challenge the decision in Supreme Court. The secretary, Uttarakhand Assembly Jagdish Chandra informed about the Speaker’s action to The pioneer over phone on Sunday evening.
Notably, the political crisis befell the State after nine dissident MlAs led by Vijay Bahuguna and Harak Singh Rawat raised the banner of revolt against the Chief Minister during the Budget discussion on March 18. This followed the BJP’s demand for division of votes on the budget. The other seven rebel members are Subodh Uniyal, Amrita Rawat, Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, Shaila Rani Rawat, Umesh Sharma Kau and Pradeep Batra. All the nine MlAs stormed into the well of the House while shouting slogans against the State government. later, the Speaker stepped in and announced the budget passed by voice vote. Enraged, the dissident MlAs and BJP MlAs marched to Rajbhawan together the same night. They later flew to Delhi together. A day after, the Congress chief whip indira Hridayesh asked the Speaker to disqualify the dissidents under anti- defection law. Acting on it, the Speaker, the die-hard loyalist of Harish Rawat, issued show- cause notices to them, asking them to reply by March 26. Meanwhile, the Governor asking the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of the House by March 28 raised the political heat of the State.
The dissident MlAs sought to delay their imminent disqualification by approaching the Speaker on March 26, asking some documents and recordings. The Speaker assured to provide them with what they sought by the morning of March 27, but he refused to extend the deadline he had earlier set for them to submit their replies that is March 26. Subsequently, the Speaker terminated their membership with immediate effect.
Mention worthy, The Pioneer had published a story on page 1 on Sunday, quoting unconfirmed sources that the dissidents had been disqualified right on March 26 evening.
The announcement was delayed because of the imposition of President’s Rule.