Harish Rawat rubbishes BJP allegations, says 'stop murdering democracy'

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Monday rubbished the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s allegations of rampant corruption in his government and said that the charges levelled by the saffron party were baseless.

Rawat also said that those 'murdering democracy' and attempting to destabilize an elected government in Uttarakhand have no right to level allegation against him.

"The BJP has levelled three fresh allegations against me. One of the allegations is regarding allotment of land for the smart city...First of all the move was in accordance with the Centre's smart city initiative. The charges levelled by BJP are baseless as many of their MLAs wanted it during initial phase," Rawat said at a press conference here.

Asserting that he did not believe in 'mudslinging', the Uttarakhand Chief Minister said t it was sad that he has to give an explanation for allotment of mining strips done during his predecessor's tenure.

"Another allegation is on the mining issue. Sad part is that even my predecessor spoke on this issue because it was during his tenure that the over 400 mining strips were issued in a very short span of time. Today I have to give clarifications for what happened during my predecessor's tenure," he added.

Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly, Ajay Bhat, earlier today said that they would urge President Pranab Mukherjee to order a floor test at the earliest as Rawat is resorting to unfair tactics to lure the rebel Congress MLAs.

Bhat also mentioned the smart city issue and the mining issue to highlight corruption in the Rawat-led Congress government in the state. He said the decision to topple the government was taken to save the people of Uttarakhand from a corrupt Congress regime in the state.