Amid power tussle, Rahul Gandhi asks Harish Rawat to stay put in U'khand

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat who was set to arrive in the national capital today to discuss the political crisis in the state with the Congress leadership, has been asked by party vice president Rahul Gandhi to stay put and handle the situation there.

The Congress government in Uttarakhand is facing a major crisis with 9 MLAs rebelling against Rawat and the BJP, which has 27 MLAs, staking claim to form the government.

Later in the day, 35 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from the state along with the nine rebel Congress leaders will meet Pranab Mukherjee here today, asking him to dismiss the state government.

"Will tell the President to dismiss the current government in Uttarakhand as they have lost majority. The Congress is unable to handle the situation there. Harish Rawat is now trying to buy people in a fit of desperation to gain support, but he will not succeed. It is his streak of corruption that has led to this situation," BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya told ANI.

Rahul Gandhi had earlier come out guns blazing on the Centre and asserted that the blatant attempt to topple governments was the true face of the party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Toppling elected Govts by indulging in horse trading & blatant misuse of money & muscle, seems to be BJP's new model, after failure in Bihar. This attack on our democracy & Constitution, first in Arunachal & now Uttarakhand, is the true face of Modiji's BJP. Congress Party will fight demagoguery with democracy," The Office on Rahul Gandhi said in a series of tweet.

In a strong rebuttal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that the Sonia Gandhi-led party had 'lowered its level of ambition and was quite content in becoming the tail ender of any alliance' be it in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal or Bihar.