No confidence motion against Uttarakhand govt defeated

Government received 40 votes against opposition's 29 votes in 70-member House

A no confidence motion moved by the opposition BJP against the Uttarakhand government led by Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Tuesday was defeated by 11 votes in the state assembly.

During the division of votes, the government got 40 votes against the opposition’s 29 votes in the 70-member House. Congress has a strength of 33 members with 7 member Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), an alliance of BSP and independents MLAs supporting the government. BJP has 30 members with Rajkumar Thakural, who is absconding in the wake of a criminal case, did not turn up in the House.

After the defeat of the motion, the Chief Minister Rawat said it was a moral victory for his government as it exposed the nefarious designs of opposition BJP at a time when the state is recovering from the mid June disaster. “We will expose BJP in the coming days by telling people that it is putting roadblocks in our efforts to revive the state which had suffered badly due to the June disaster,” said Rawat.

 Earlier, moving the motion, leader of the opposition Ajay Bhatt said the BJP has brought the motion because the government has totally failed on all fronts and done nothing to provide succor to the people affected by the disaster.

“Even in Kedarnath, hundreds of bodies are still lying in various places and the government has not bothered to retrieve them,” said Bhatt showing some photographs which he claimed were taken on October 28.