 "Harish Rawat")
Ahead of the March 28 floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly in the face of rebellion by nine Congress legislators, the ruling party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are vying to get an upper hand.
Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal has issued notices of expulsion to the nine rebels, asking them to reply by Friday. These notices were pasted on the walls of the houses of these MLAs here on Sunday.
Earlier, Indira Hridayesh, chief whip of the ruling party, had written to the Speaker for expulsion of the nine rebels for going against the party's directives.
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The BJP and the rebels, on their part, have served a notice for removal of the Speaker, saying he has lost the confidence of the House, according to Ajay Bhatt, president of the state unit of the BJP, who is also the leader of the Opposition.
In view of the two divergent moves taken by both the Congress and the BJP, the power struggle is likely to turn into a legal battle, say political analysts.
Both the ruling Congress and the BJP are also taking legal opinions on the whole issue. It will be interesting to see whether the Speaker will be allowed to expel the rebels ahead of the floor test.
If this happens, the effective strength of the 70-member House will be reduced to 61, which will give an advantage to the ruling party. In that case, the BJP and the rebels will be left with no choice but to take a legal recourse.
Significantly, the BJP is also not happy with Governor K K Paul, who has given nine days to Chief Minister Harish Rawat to prove a majority.
"When we have physically paraded all the 35 MLAs before the governor on Friday night, he should have dismissed the Rawat government immediately," said Bhatt.
