While continuing with his no-holds-barred attack on his ‘friend’ Harish Rawat, former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said on Friday that he was for early election in the State. “We would not help anybody form Government,” he said, adding that Rawat was responsible for the imposition of President’s Rule on the State.
“Had Harish Rawat quit at the right time after he lost majority in the Assembly things would not have come to such a pass,” he said while talking to the media persons after taking blessings from Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati on Friday.
Bahuguna said that he had been taking inspiration from Shankaracharya Swaroopanand since the time of his late father. “Hence I decided to take his blessing on the auspicious day of Ram Navami,” he said.
Hitting out at Harish Rawat, he said that as the former had dug out the rivers for mining they had dug out his chair.
Calling Rawat a ‘friend’, Bahuguna said that his downfall was inevitable, given the fact that his priorities were wrong. “He ditched me by stopping all the projects announced by me when I was the CM. He had even the foundation stones of the projects laid down by me removed.” He further said that he was a fool thinking that he could have perpetuated his rule by weakening them.
“Rawat should have resigned on March 18 itself-the day he lost his majority in the House. Had he done so another would have replaced him. But when he refused there was no other option but the President’s Rule,” he said.
Asked about his and other rebel Congress legislators’ next move, Bahuguna said, “Our next step would be to cleanse the politics of Uttarakhand for the benefit of the State and its people. The Assembly should be dissolved at the earliest to pave way for fresh election. We would not help anybody form a government in the State,” he said.
Debunking the Congress’s relentless propaganda that President’s Rule is tantamount to murder of democracy, Bahuguna said it was very much a part of democratic functioning. “The number of times it has been imposed on the States since Independence is 126, a figure that makes it clear that President’s Rule is part and parcel of democratic polity,” he said.