BJP a ‘rejected party’ in Goa, Manipur: Congress

New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) Terming the BJP's act of forming governments in Goa and Manipur a "sinister game plan of a rejected party", the Congress on Wednesday said the party's "machinations are on full display in its pursuit to defeat the peoples mandate".

"Abduction, defection, inducement, intimidation and polarisation characterise the vision for a new India under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala wrote on his blog.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party's argument that the Governor is not obliged to invite the single largest party to form the government is not only "specious but demonstrates a lack of understanding of settled legal principles".

The Congress leader, citing a nine-judge Supreme Court Constitutional Bench order in the case of S.R. Bommai vs Union of India, said the Governor has to invite the leader of the party commanding a majority in the house or the single largest party to form the government.

"This principle is the law of the land and in the absence of a clear majority, the Governor by virtue of this judgment is duty-bound to first invite the single largest party/group to form the government, which in the present case is the Congress in both Goa and Manipur," he said.

"The Goans not only elected the Congress as the single largest party with 17 seats plus 1 independent but also decisively defeated the BJP government, including its Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar as also six BJP Ministers, reducing BJP tally from 21 MLAs to 13 in the present assembly," he wrote.

Surjewala said the BJP with 13 MLAs cobbled together an arrangement of "vested interests" wherein the law and the people's will were subverted at the altar of political expediency and legitimacy.

"The BJP claims to be a party with a difference but demonstrated its difference by trampling on institutions and the public mandate," the Congress leader added.

He said a similar game was played out in Imphal, converting a minority of 21 MLAs into a majority ignoring the majority of 28 Congress MLAs.

"The evidence of their shenanigans was clear when BJP President Amit Shah claimed on March 11 that they will form the governments in Goa and Manipur even before the counting was over," he said.

"This trend initiated by the BJP of destabilising and toppling legitimately elected governments and pre-empting the formation of duly elected party formations by using money and muscle power is disturbing and constitutes a direct threat to the very foundation of our nation," the Congress leader added.