Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Monday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for "murdering democracy" and "trying to destabilise an elected government" in the state. Rawat met with senior Congress leaders in Delhi on Monday, after nine of his party's MLA's supported the Bharatiya Janata Party in toppling his government. Addressing the press after his meeting, Rawat said that the BJP has "no right to level allegations against me". He said that the BJP's allegations of corruption against him on the smart city project were baseless.

The Congress earlier expelled Saket Bahuguna, son of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, and Joint Secretary Anil Gupta from the party for six years for “anti-party activities”, reported The Times of India. According to reports, Saket Bahuguna allegedly helped plan the rebellion within the Congress in the state. The Uttarakhand Congress also dissolved all nine district units that were under the rebel MLAs. The party’s state unit had moved the rest of its MLAs to a secret location in Ramnagar on Sunday.

The nine rebel Congress MLAs, along with 26 BJP legislators from Uttarakhand, are set to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. The BJP staked its claim to the state government after receiving the support of the rebel Congress MLAs when it asked for a physical counting of votes on the Finance Bill in the state assembly last week. However, the assembly speaker did not allow for it and declared the Bill passed by a voice vote. The Congress had emerged the single-largest party in the Uttarakhand Assembly in the 2012 elections, after it won 32 of the 70 seats. It formed the state government with the support of three independent MLAs and three from the Bahujan Samaj Party.