Nayab Saini govt. in ‘minority’, Congress tells Haryana Governor; seeks dissolution of House

A delegation of the Haryana Congress met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya here on Thursday, claiming the Nayab Singh Saini government is in “minority”. It demanded dissolution of the Assembly and holding of fresh polls.

A party delegation, headed by Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan here in the evening and submitted a memorandum to him.

Later interacting with reporters, Mr. Hooda said, “The government does not have the moral right to stay in power... We have demanded that the House be dissolved and fresh elections be held.”

In the memorandum to Mr. Dattatreya, the Congress said the present government lacks a majority in the House “unless it indulges in horse-trading or use of unconstitutional means”.

“To stop horse-trading, which will bring a bad name to the State, the Assembly should be dissolved. This is what we have urged (the Governor),” Mr. Hooda said.

He said in the 90-member Assembly, which currently has an effective strength of 87, BJP has 41 MLAs and the support of the lone legislator of the Haryana Lokhit Party and Independent member Nayan Pal Rawat.

“This makes it clear that the present government is in minority. According to the Constitution and democratic norms, the BJP has no right to continue in the government,” the memorandum said.

“We request you to discharge your Constitutional obligation and dismiss this minority government immediately and impose President’s rule to maintain the sanctity and purity of democracy in the State. Fresh elections to the Assembly should be held to enable people to elect a popular government in accordance with law,” the memorandum read.

The Governor has assured the delegation that he would consider the memorandum, Mr. Hooda added. “We are adopting constitutional means. The Governor is the constitutional head and we will wait for his decision,” he said in reply to a question.

Mr. Hooda also said that Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry, who switched over to the BJP from the Congress, has not resigned as MLA. So the current strength of the Assembly as of now is 87, he said.

Besides Mr. Hooda, the delegation comprised State Congress chief Udai Bhan, Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislative Party in Haryana Aftab Ahmed and CLP chief whip B.B. Batra.

On May 10 also, the Congress had submitted a memorandum to the Governor demanding the dismissal of the “minority” BJP government in the State and sought fresh elections under the President’s rule.

Independent MLAs

Last month, three Independent MLAs — Sombir Sangwan, Randhir Singh Gollen and Dharampal Gonder — had withdrawn their support to the BJP and announced that they would back the Congress.

After that, the Congress delegation had met the Governor last month too.

When it was pointed out that the State BJP leaders have countered that the Saini government was not in a minority as it had won the trust vote in March, Mr. Hooda said, “It is the government which has to make clear that numbers are on their side.”