Cong does a quick one; stakes claim to form Uttarakhand Govt

New Delhi, Mar 9: The suspense with the regards to the Uttarakhand government has finally come to an end with the reports emerging that the Congress will stake its claim to form the government. With a nail biting fight to the finish in the

, the Congress had scraped past the victory line by winning 32 seats while, the BJP came a close second winning 31 seats.

On Friday, it has emerged that the Congress has the support of 3 Independents and 1 member of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) qualifying them to form the government in the state. [Read: Uttarakhand elections 2012: Complete list of winners]

Congress representatives n the state is expected to meet Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva at around 1PM to stake their claim. According to sources, the Congress party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad who is appointed as observer will be rushing to the hill state of Uttarakhand on Friday morning to handover the letter of support from the Independents MLAs and the UKD legislator to the Governor.

Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Yashpal Arya has been quoted as saying, "We have all the numbers which are enough to form new government. Let the new leader be chosen by the party high command, thereafter we will form government also."

Sources within the party also added that Haldwani MLA Indira Hridyesh, senior party leader Vijay Bahuguna and Yashpal Arya were in the race for the new Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader. There are high chances, however that Hridyesh is most likely to be chosen as CLP leader, sources said.

OneIndia News