Harish Rawat will soon assume office as the Supreme Court has given permission to revoke President's Rule in Uttarakhand.
Highlights
- Central Rule lifted after Attorney General met President Pranab Mukherjee
- Earlier, the Centre told Supreme Court that Harish Rawat won trust vote
- Uttarakhand has been under President's Rule since March
President's Rule was lifted from Uttarakhand and the Congress government was restored late on Wednesday evening, after the Centre acknowledged that Harish Rawat had won a trust vote held yesterday. "Let us forget the past and start with a new chapter," Mr Rawat told reporters.
Here are the latest developments in the story:
The Centre informed the Supreme Court that President's Rule, which it has controversially used in March to remove Mr Rawat, will be lifted.
"There is no doubt that Harish Rawat has proved his majority. My instructions are that the Centre will revoke the President's rule," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court.
A jubilant Congress, which had started celebrating right after the vote, called it the "victory of democracy". Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "Hope Modiji learns his lesson-ppl of this country &the institutions built by our founding fathers will not tolerate the murder of democracy!"
Mr Rawat had challenged the decision in one court after another; the Congress and other parties accused the BJP of misusing its powers to remove a democratically-elected government just because it was that of an opposition party.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that Mr Rawat must be given a chance to prove that he still has a majority in the state legislature.
The 69-year-old's crisis began when the BJP decided to leverage the dissent within the Congress against Mr Rawat as a stepping stone to trying to form the government in the hill state.
After months of unhappiness, nine Congress rebels went public with their revolt against the Chief Minister. The lawmakers, disqualified in March, were barred from voting yesterday.
The Centre in March said that the nine rebels had voted against Mr Rawat's state budget, which proved that he had lost his majority. President's Rule, placing Uttarakhand under central rule was declared just one day before Mr Rawat was to take a trust vote.
It was only yesterday, after court intervention, that the vote was finally held, and Mr Rawat won comfortably, partly because of the support from Mayawati, who heads the BSP.
Determined to max out the morale and political boost, the Congress may push for early elections - Uttarakhand is to vote in February next year.
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