NEW DELHI/ DEHRADUN: March 22 (Agencies) : The BJP on Monday pitched itself to form a government in Uttarakhand with nine Congress rebel MLAs switching sides to unsettle Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

The Congress, too, stepped up its game by expelling Saket Bahuguna, the son of the rebel group leader and former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, and approached President Pranab Mukherjee with a plea to rein in the BJP.

A BJP delegation led by general-secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also met the President on Monday evening with a request to direct the governor to dismiss the Congress government in Uttarakhand, as party leaders claimed that the Rawat regime seized to exist since it failed to get the Budget passed.

However, contrary to earlier plans, the Congress rebels did not accompany the BJP delegation to meet the President. They demanded advancing the trust vote to Tuesday, as against the March 28 date set by the Governor for Rawat to prove his majority.

“The nine Congress rebels will meet the President separately. This is a BJP delegation,” Vijayvargiya, who led a dramatic march to the Rashtrapati Bhawan said.
Questioning the role of Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, the BJP leaders said how could he announce passage of the “Finance Bill” through a voice vote after disallowing their request for a division of votes.

Meanwhile, the Congress has taken its MLAs and their supporters to a resort near the Jim Corbett National Park in a bid to prevent attempts to lure them.

The rebel group, camping in a luxury hotel in Gurgaon, too, has been shifted to an undisclosed location.