Uttarakhand CM blames dissidents, Modi for President's Rule

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Sunday accused his two former colleagues - Vijay Bahuguna and Harak Singh Rawat - of conniving with the BJP to topple his government.

Harish Rawat told the media that he was yet to get a formal notification of President's Rule in the state.

The Congress leader accused Bahuguna, whom he replaced as chief minister, as frustrated and former agriculture minister Harak Singh Rawat of being blinded by ambitions.

The chief minister did not spare the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi too.

Emerging from the Raj Bahwan where he met Governor K.K. Paul, he said Modi had the "blood of the aspirations of the people of Uttarakhand on his hands".

"It had become evident since yesterday (Saturday). They had been threatening the Uttarakhad government and the state governor," Rawat said.

He addressed the media hours after President Pranab Mukherjee okayed the union cabinet's decision to sack the Rawat government and impose President's Rule in the hill state.

Rawat said he will go to the people and expose the conspiracy hatched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against his government.

He also charged the BJP with "openly threatening" the governor, and added that the central government had been conspiring against him and his government from day one.

The chief minister said the BJP-led central government slashed the budget for Uttarakhand and even cut funds for the restoration of the Kedarnath temple, which was devastated in the 2013 flash floods, and the Kumbh Mela.

He alleged that various corporates had funded the mission to overthrow his government, and that Rs.25 crore was paid to strike a deal with the disgruntled Congress legislators to rebel against him.

Rawat questioned the urgency which marked the decision to impose President's Rule since his government had to prove its majority in the state assembly on Monday.

He asked television journalists to visit his official residence and see for themselves that he still lived a simple life, contrary to the allegations of graft levelled against him.