6 Himachal Congress MLAs to move HC over disqualification
The six Congress MLAs, who were disqualified by Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday, will challenge the decision in the high court, The MLAs were disqualified under the anti-defection law for defying the party whip to vote in favor of the government on the Finance Bill in the House. To recall, these six MLAs had cross-voted in favor of the Bhartiya Janata Party candidate during the election for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state.
Why does this story matter?
The cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha election triggered a political crisis in the state. On Wednesday, BJP MLAs met the governor seeking a test of strength for the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government in the assembly. Soon after, minister Vikramaditya Singh announced that he had resigned from the state cabinet. He later took back his resignation. To contain the situation, the Congress had dispatched DK Shivakumar, Bhupesh Baghel, and Bhupinder Singh Hooda to Shimla to interact with the party MLAs.
'MLAs not provided 7 days to respond to notice'
Advocate Satya Pal Jain, representing the disqualified Congress MLAs, argued that the legislators were not provided the mandatory seven days to respond to the notice. He added that key documents were not supplied to the six MLAs—Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma, and Devinder Kumar Bhutto. They are now working on their petition to the HC. Meanwhile, there were reports that Singh—son of Congress stalwart the late Virbhadra Singh—met the rebel Congress MLAs on Friday.
Singh's meeting with rebel MLAs
After his meeting, Singh urged CM Sukhu to "take back the legislators." "The...MLAs have accepted their mistake. We must reconsider...anything is possible in politics," he told Sukhu, according to reports. Hours after Singh's meeting, his mother Pratibha Singh—who is also the state party chief—said that the BJP's "working" is "better than ours (Congress)." Claiming the BJP "will do a lot of things" as per the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said the Congress is on a weak footing.
Political crisis in state over: DKS
The crisis in the state has brought the rift between factions loyal to CM Sukhu and Pratibha out in the open. The state unit chief's recent remarks have further stirred unease within the party. On Thursday, Shivakumar said that the political turmoil in the state had subsided. At a joint press conference attended by Hooda, Baghel, Sukhu and Pratibha, he added, "All the MLAs have assured and taken an oath to work together to save the party and the government."
Strength of House reduced to 62
The recent disqualification action has created vacancies in assembly constituencies Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar. This has reduced the effective strength of the House from 68 to 62, with the number of Congress MLAs decreasing from 40 to 34. The opposition BJP now holds 25 seats, while three others are held by independent candidates.
Sukhu government will not last: Thakur
Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur, however, has said that the Sukhu government will not last. "We are sitting here and not doing anything. Whatever is happening...it is happening among themselves," he said. On Wednesday, 15 BJP MLAs—including Thakur—were suspended for allegedly disrupting proceedings and forcibly removed from the House. "Unethical and wrong methods...have been adopted to save the government—suspension of BJP MLAs, disqualification of six Congress MLAs. These have affected the image of CM," he added.
