NEW DELHI: BJP today said the Supreme Court's stay on the Uttarakhand High Court order has "halted" the piquant situation created in the state and claimed Congress has much to answer for the political crisis there.
"There was a piquant situation created by the high court order and a prayer was made to the Supreme Court for a stay on its operation and restoring the situation where the governor was in charge of the state.
"It (Supreme Court's) is definitely an important order because it halts the piquant situation created in Uttarakhand whereby the Chief Minister immediately and without an order in writing available called a Cabinet meeting and started taking decisions," party spokesperson Nalin Kohli said.
Kohli is also a member of the legal team representing the Centre in the case.
The apex court has obviously appreciated the Centre's arguments and that is why it stayed the high court order's operation till the next date of hearing on April 27.
He said Rawat and Congress will have to answer a lot of questions as he accused the former chief minister of suppressing the fact that 27 MLAs of BJP in the state had demanded in writing a division of votes on March 18 over the passage of Appropriation bill in the Assembly.
Rawat's counsel later admitted to it, he said.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi also dismissed Congress's charge that BJP was behind the rebellion in its ranks and saying the Opposition party has always faced desertion by its senior leaders whenever it was out of power in the Centre.
"Congress breaks whenever it is not in power," he claimed.
He cited a number of examples, including the decision to then senior party leaders Arjun Singh and N D Tiwari to float a new party when Congress was out of power during 1998-2004.