Ugly scenes were witnessed in Uttarakhand Assembly Friday as the ruling Congress desperately tried to avoid voting on a Finance Bill that may have brought down the Harish Rawat government.
Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat and Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani came to blows as Congress rebels joined Opposition BJP MLAs in pushing for a division on the Finance Bill.
In the uproar that followed, Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal allowed the Finance Bill to be passed by a voice vote. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later claimed that of the 67 members present in the House, 35 were with them while there were only 32 with the government.
Immediately afterwards all the BJP MLAs, together with rebel Congress MLAs rushed to meet Governor KK Paul and staked claim to form the government.
The Congress rebels led by former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna and Harak Singh Rawat had earlier threatened to vote against the Finance Bill. The BJP claimed it had the support of 12 rebel Congress MLAs in a house of 70 members.
Failure in passing the Budget could have forced Harish Rawat to resign, leading to the fall of the Congress government.
Bahuguna has been lobbying for the Rajya Sabha berth which falls vacant after BJP MP Tarun Vijay's term gets over. Harak Singh Rawat is seeking tickets for his supporters in the next state elections scheduled to be held in the first half of 2017.
The BJP is seeking the help of rebels to topple the Rawat government, in a move similar to the recent political development in Arunachal Pradesh.
Rawat currently runs the government with the support of Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), which is a platform of six non-Congress MLAs, including two BSP (excluding Late Surendra Rakesh), three independents and one UKD.
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