The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday reacted to a Supreme Court verdict reinstating the Nabam Tuki-led Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh, and said it was “strange” that the party with majority support was being asked to sit in the Opposition, reported PTI. BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said, “The order certainly raises a question as to whether it strengthens the democratic spirit or weakens it… it appears from the verdict that the one having the majority is being asked to sit in the opposition and the one who has lost it is being asked to run the government.”
“In democracy, the one with the numbers runs the government. And the numbers are with the current chief minister not Tuki," he said. However, Sharma said the judgment would be closely studied by the party and that he was not commenting on the verdict.
Earlier in the day, the top court directed a status quo ante (a return to the original status) in Arunachal Pradesh as it prevailed on December 15, 2015, referring to the time before a rebellion in the Assembly created chaos in the state's political system and led to President's Rule being imposed there.
The court also said that all orders passed by Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa after December 9, 2015, are unsustainable. The bench was hearing a petition filed against a Gauhati High Court verdict regarding Governor JP Rajkhowa's decision to bring forward the winter session of the Assembly without consulting Tuki.
Congress leaders have welcomed the verdict and asked for the governor’s resignation. The Supreme Court’s ruling comes as a blow to the BJP, which also lost a floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly, after the state was placed under President’s Rule in March this year.
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