DEHRADUN: Former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat on Wednesday termed the nine rebels who had left the Congress and joined the BJP in 2016 "mahapaapis (great sinners)" and said they should publicly apologise before being allowed to rejoin the grand old party.
Rawat said whatever happened in 2016 using money was "khareed farokht (horse trading)" which was termed "mahapaap (great sin)" by the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"Former PM Vajpayee called it ‘mahapaap’. If they (the defectors) want to come back to the Congress they must accept that they have sinned. This is not about destabilising my government in 2016 but smearing the parliamentary culture of Uttarakhand. And that was done using money," said Rawat.