Taking his bete noir Harish Rawat’s victory in the floor test in a stoical spirit, the former CM Vijay Bahuguna said that the outcome was expected. “I have not been in the least surprised. As the effective strength of the House stood at 62 he has got the support of 33. This is where lies the significance of our action,” he said.
“On March 18 when the appropriation bill was to be passed Harish Rawat had the support of 32 out of 67 MlAs present. On that day, 35 MlAs- 26 from BJP and nine Congress MlAs- were against the bill, but the Speaker announced appropriation bill passed by voice vote,” he said.
He said that now the dust having settled for the present, Congress high command should think deeply of what had gone wrong with the party. “On March 18, nine Congress MlAs revolted against Harish Rawat and on May 10, one more followed despite knowing full well the fact that their membership would be at stake under anti- defection law. High command must introspect why ten Congress MlAs, in all, have leftIJ Now, Harish Rawat must be rejoicing. But the fact is that he is surviving on the support of crutches. Has he any credibility left to execute his promises for the remainder of his termIJ” he asked.
He ascribed the revolt of the nine MlAs to the fact of Harish Rawat clinging to the PDF, leaving in the lurch the Congress MlAs. “We asked him to reconsider the party’s strategy regarding PDF. However, he kept on making the matter hang fire despite assuring to take a call fast ,” he said.