Dehra Dun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Thursday slammed BJP for staging a walk-out during the
voting on the trust motion and said the opposition party did
not take part in the exercise it lacked the number.
"This is ironical that BJP members staged a walk-out
during voting on trust motion which they were demanding for
the past two days. The same voting system was followed 27
times earlier in the country during such votes. I think they
(BJP) did not take participate (in the voting) as they do not
have the number, " Bahuguna told reporters after winning the
trust vote by 39 votes on the floor of the 70-member assembly.
He said his government decided to bring the trust motion
after BJP disrupted the assembly proceedings, including the
Governor`s address, on the ground that he is heading a
minority government.
"Though we had already proved our majority in the
election of the Speaker, we brought the trust vote to clear
the doubts which were being created by opposition members," he
said.
Bahuguna said that at a meeting of Congress Legislature
Party (CLP) this morning, he himself had proposed that the
government should face a trust vote on the floor of the House
to clear the doubts regarding the majority.
The meeting was also attended by Virbhadra Singh and
Chaudhary Birendra Singh as special representatives of the
Congress high command. Union Minister Harish Rawat also joined
the meeting later.
Bahuguna said the people of the state gave a mandate to
Congress and it staked the claim with the support of BSP, UKD
and independents to form the government by submitting to the
Governor a letter of support of 39 MLAs and the party was
invited to form the government.
"I think BJP is still finding it difficult to digest the
fact that they have been voted out of power", he said.
He said BJP was dreaming of forming the government "due to
some internal crisis in Congress" but internal fighting in BJP
are "much more severe" and they are yet to decide the leader
of the opposition.
"This is a history that the chair of leader of the
opposition is vacant while House proceedings are going on. I
have not found such a case anywhere else," he said.
He also appealed to BJP to participate in the discussion
over the Governor`s address and vote-on-account to move
forward the hill state on the path of development.
"We need your (BJP) cooperation for the development of
Uttarakhand. So, please don`t boycott the House proceedings
and play a constructive role," he said.
PTI
