Uttarakhand political crisis: Harish Rawat shown black flags, stones pelted on convoy

Dehardaun: Deposed Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat was on Saturday allegedly shown black flags and his convoy pelted with stones here when he was going to an event to mobilise public opinion against the dismissal of his government.

"The stones thrown from under a flyover by BJP goons hit vehicles in the convoy of the former CM. Fortunately, no one was hurt but it shows the desperation of BJP which has lost all sense of political courtesy," senior Congress leader and former CM's media incharge Surendra Kumar told PTI.

However, undeterred by the attack, Rawat came out of his car to lead a march from Kanwali road to Balliwala chawk during which he was also shown black flags.

Later, addressing a large public meeting at Sadhuram Inter College, he asked the people of the state to teach a lesson to those who had dislodged a democratically-elected government in the state with the power of money and muscle.

"You tell me who would give me justice and punish those who dislodged a government which had made provisions in its budget for the poor and the downtrodden, the youth and women?" Rawat said at the meeting which was part of his "save democracy yatra".

"BJP has stooped to a new low by trying to disrupt the CM's yatra in such a manner. First, it murdered democracy in Uttarakhand by overthrowing a popular government and now it is shamelessly displaying its disregard for decent political behaviours. The party condemns it in the harshest of words," Pradesh Congress President Kishore Upadhyay said.