The Congress on Saturday accused Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of being a “hitman” of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, and insisted it is exploring all legal options to ensure the ouster of the “illegitimate” government in the state.
The party, along with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) approached the Supreme Court, challenging the governor’s decision to invite BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to form the government in Maharashtra.
Addressing a news conference at party headquarters in Delhi, the Congress’s chief spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, posed 10 questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to explain the political developments in Maharashtra.
Terming the swearing-in of Fadnavis as CM a “black chapter” in India’s democracy, he alleged that the governor did not make any effort to verify his claims of having support of a majority of legislators.
“The BJP scared an opportunist Ajit Pawar [of the NCP] and acted as contract killer of democracy. Fadnavis had promised to put Ajit Pawar in jail but has made him deputy chief minister now,” Surjewala said.
“How did the Maharashtra governor verify signatures and at what time he recommended revocation of the President rule and when the union government met and accepted that? Who were the ministers present and when did the union cabinet recommend to remove the President’s rule from Maharashtra.”
{{/usCountry}}“How did the Maharashtra governor verify signatures and at what time he recommended revocation of the President rule and when the union government met and accepted that? Who were the ministers present and when did the union cabinet recommend to remove the President’s rule from Maharashtra.”
{{/usCountry}}Surjewala said the Congress will fight against this “subversion of the Constitution” both legally and on the floor of House.
“In the history of independent India, this may be the only occasion when in the dead of the night, the Constitution was subverted, democracy was throttled and rule of law was mowed down by a governor to surreptitiously induct an illegitimate government of the BJP,” he alleged.
In Lucknow defence minister Rajnath Singh said, it was the prerogative of the governor to invite a party to form a government. “At this point of time, I do not wish to make any political statement. It was the prerogative of the governor,” he said. “The governor invited the person (to form government) after he was satisfied.”