For the BJP’s master strategists, yet another bit of adventurism blew up in its face.
For the BJP’s master strategists, yet another bit of adventurism blew up in its face. While the Uttarakhand unit of the BJP continued to caution the party’s central leadership not to get involved in the politics of the Congress rebels, some heavyweights in the party decided to overrule them. As in Delhi and Bihar, the central leadership yet again chose to ignore the local leaders. Not did the central leadership merely overrule the local leaders, it also ignored the governor, Mr Krishan Kant Paul, who apparently never recommended the dismissal of the Harish Rawat-led government in his report.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, during an interaction with the media, had criticised the governor for giving Mr Harish Rawat time till March 28 to prove his majority. “I think the governor should not give so much time to the chief minister to prove his majority, so much so that the Speaker gets an opportunity to disqualify the MLAs. The governor should have issued directions that status quo be maintained and no action be taken against the MLAs until the trust vote. I cannot say that the governor is helping them (the Congress), but we are at a loss,” he had reportedly told the media. Speculation was also rife that Baba Ramdev had been parleying with the dissident Congress MLAs.
Fishing in troubled waters, the BJP top brass reportedly set off a game plan to poach the dissident Congress MLAs. Sources revealed that a deal was struck and the nine Congress rebels who plunged Uttarakhand into a political crisis were likely to join the BJP and contest next year’s Assembly polls as its candidates. As per the purported deal, four of the rebel candidates were assured ministerial berths if the BJP won the elections. Former CM Vijay Bahuguna, who was leading the rebellion, had reportedly bargained for a Rajya Sabha ticket with the BJP’s backing. The BJP, which was struggling to strengthen its organisation in Uttarakhand, was also keen to accept Mr Bahuguna’s demand that his two sons, Saket and Saurabh, be given party tickets to contest the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
The saffron camp then went on to release a sting video showing CM Harish Rawat bargaining with rebel party MLAs and offering them money to win their support during the floor test in the Assembly on March 28. The CM had described the video as “fake”.
As for the BJP master strategists, they argued that if the high court quashed their disqualification, the nine rebels would vote for the BJP in case of a floor test. “In that case, our party will form government as we will have a comfortable majority with 36 legislators, including the nine rebel Congress MLAs supporting us in a House of 70,” a senior strategist is believed to have told the party.
His political calculations went completely wrong as the Uttarakhand high court on Thursday upheld the disqualification of the nine dissident Congress MLAs and observed that “they (the dissident MLAs) have to pay the price of committing the constitutional sin of defection by being disqualified”.
The BJP strategists were so confident that they had even begun the exercise of government formation in Uttarakhand. Mr Vijayvargiya, who is also the party leader in charge of the West Bengal polls, held meetings with probable CM candidates for the party, which included Satpal Maharaj and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari.
Mr Vijayvargiya was quoted in an English daily as saying that the BJP was not averse to forming an alternate government if the court ordered a trial of strength. “We had a majority then (on March 18, when a division was demanded on the Budget) and we have a majority now. We can prove it if any opportunity is given to us,” he reportedly said.
