President's Rule in Maharashtra 'unfortunate' , shows Governers working on directions of Centre: Kapil Sibal

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that the President's Rule being imposed in Maharashtra was a very unfortunate move and alleged that it once again revealed that governors across the country were working at the directions of the central government.

"It (President's Rule) is very unfortunate. As far as the Governor is concerned, then in any state, you can see that the governors work on the directions of the centre. They do what the BJP wants them to do," Sibal told ANI here.

"In Karnataka, they could wait for two to three weeks when BJP was to form the government but nobody can get even 24 hours in Maharashtra. It is a bad thing, you are sitting on a constitutional post, and if you work on the directions of the Centre then what will happen to the law," he added.

The senior Congress leader said that the Governor should not have waited for November 9 when it was clear in October that the Shiv Sena was not willing to form a government with the BJP.

"It should have not reached this level, when on October 24 it was clear that the Shiv Sena was not going with the BJP then why did they wait till November 9. They did not want to give any other time to the others," Sibal said.

"We have been seeing the way governors are functioning since 2014. The conduct of both the Governor and the center is in unison, so that horse-trading can take place. Impose President's Rule, get some time and then use money power to get other legislators on board. They want to do a repeat of Karnataka. It is highly immoral," Sibal said.

Maharashtra came under the President's Rule today after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his approval for the requisite notification.

The President signed the notification following the recommendation of the Union Cabinet which acted on the report from the state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

The Governor had recommended the imposition of President's Rule following the political stalemate in the state over the formation of the government with BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP being unable to gather support for forming government in the state.