The Congress party on Wednesday accused the BJP-led government of using Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari like a puppet, saying he took 'wrong' decisions in a hurry to recommend the President's Rule in the state.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said the President's Rule was 'a joke with democracy' and was an ill deed against the established traditions of the Constitution.
He said the Supreme Court guidelines were violated. He said the Governor should have first called BJP-Shiv Sena, the single biggest pre-poll alliance, to form the government and then the Congress-NCP.
Surjewala said if the parties were to be called individually, then why the Congress was not called.
He said that 48 hours were given to BJP, 24 hours to Shiv Sena, 10 hours to NCP and no time to the Congress.
"Does it not show the Governor was working as a puppet and not fulfilling its responsibilities," he said.
Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the formation of the government is a political process and reasonable time should have been given.
He said the Governor mysteriously gave a time of 24 hours to prove the numbers and it was wrong.
"The party which said no - BJP - and treating it equal to Shiv Sena - which said yes - that is also principally wrong," said Singhvi.
He said the Constitution makers had said that the President's Rule is "rarest of rare case" and is "not an option of the first choice but the last resort."
Singhvi said the Governor violated it and undertook the process of calling parties like a machine he is ticking off a list. "There was a hurry in the mind to impose the President's Rule," he said.
Singhvi also said the Article 356 should not be used to "manufacture majority." He said the meeting of Cabinet was called before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's departure to Brazil to attend the BRICS summit.
( With inputs from ANI )