DEHRADUN: Congress’ dismissed chief minister, Harish Rawat, secured the support of 33 MLAs in Tuesday’s floor test in the state assembly against 28 MLAs who voted against him in a House of 61, excluding the assembly Speaker.
The Supreme Court, which had prescribed the vote of confidence, will on Wednesday decide on the next course of action on Uttarakhand after going through the results that was submitted to it in a sealed cover.
“Apart from one Congress MLA, Rekha Arya, 27 BJP MLAs voted against the motion,” one MLA said. Congress made up for the cross-voting by managing to win the support of BJP MLA Bhimlal Arya. That meant effectively, Congress (27) and BJP (28) maintained their strength in the voting. All the six other MLAs — including three independents, two BSP legislators and one UKD member — backed the Congress.
On Monday, the Supreme Court had declined to stay a high court order banning nine rebel Congress MLAs — who were disqualified by the Speaker under the anti-defection Act before President’s rule was imposed in the state — from voting in the floor test. BSP announced its support to Congress just before the beginning of House proceedings .
@Agency report.
