Himachal Pradesh political crisis: Speaker disqualifies 6 Congress MLAs who cross-voted for BJP

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday (Feb 29) disqualified six Congress MLAs that cross-voted during Tuesday's Rajya Sabha election to gift Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the sole seat for the upper house of the Indian parliament from the northern state.

"Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves. I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect," Singhannounced.

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The disqualified MLAs are Chaitanya Sharma,Rajinder Rana,Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Sudhir Sharma and Indur Dutt Lakhanpal.

The petition to disqualify the MLAs was filed by Congress leader andparliamentary affairs Minister Harsh Wardhan Chauhan under the anti-defection law.

With the six rebel MLAs disqualified, the strength of the house comes down from 68 to 62 and the halfway mark is 32. In this scenario, Congress has 34 MLAs in the assembly compared to BJP's 25 while three remain independent.

Political upheaval in the Himalayan state

The development comes a day after 15 BJP MLAs,including Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur, was suspended by the speaker, for "misbehaving" with marshalls outside his office.

Thakur had met the Himachal Pradesh governor early on Wednesday (Feb 28) and sought a test of strength for theSukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government.

Thakur demandeda division of votes for passing the state budget instead of a voice vote. However, his request was not accepted as the assembly passed the budget for 2024-25 and related appropriation bill with a voice vote.

BJP had hoped if Congress failed to pass the budget, it would bring a no-confidence motion in the assembly to destabilise the government.The equations briefly stacked in its favour whenMLA Vikramaditya Singh, son of former CM Virbhadra Singh, announced his resignation from the council of ministers, alleging theSukhu-government had humiliated its own MLAs several times.

Watch |Himachal Pradesh: BJP MLAs stage walkout amid budget proceedings

Later in the night, Singh said he had withheld his resignation untilBhupinder Singh Hooda and DK Shivakumar - the two observers deployed by the Congress high command to defuse the situation, had submitted their report.

"We have engaged with the observers, apprising them of the current situation. I will refrain from pressing my resignation until a decision is reached. The ultimate resolution will be determined in the near future," Singh said.

Notably, after cross-voting resulted in Congress losing its advantage and senior leader Abhishek Singhvi conceding defeat, a dejected Sukhu blamed his party men for being sell-outs.

There were rumours that Sukhu might tender his resignation as well, but he came out to refute the claims saying Congress will remain in power for the full five-year period.

(With inputs from agencies)