Himachal Pradesh political shake-up: 6 Congress rebels and 3 independent MLAs jump ship to BJP

Six Congress rebels and three Independent MLAs from Himachal Pradesh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (Mar 23), altering the state's political landscape.

Rebel Congress MLAs disqualified

The rebel Congress MLAs Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Badsar), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti), Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret), and Devender Bhutto (Kutlehar) faced disqualification for disobeying party orders to support the ruling Congress candidates during voting for the Rajya Sabha elections. Aside from voting for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls, the rebel MLAs did not vote on the Budget in the assembly.

The Supreme Court declined to stay the disqualification of rebel Congress leaders under the anti-defection law, ordering them not to participate in assembly proceedings until further notice, stirring a legal battle. This marks the first instance of disqualification of an MLA from Himachal Pradesh under the anti-defection law.

MLAs Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh, and KL Thakur, despite seeking BJP tickets initially, has contested as Independents in the 2022 Assembly polls and won from Hamirpur, Dehra, and Nalagarh respectively, later lending support to the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government.

TheIndependent MLAs accused Chief Minister Sukhu of vindictive actions, and lodging of false cases against them and their families, while Sukhu said that MLAs should have respected the public's mandate. They submitted their resignations to Assembly Secretary Yash Paul Sharma on March 23.

Himachal Pradesh Assembly strength

With the disqualification, the effective strength of the Himachal Assembly dropped to 34 from 40 in the 68-member, impacting the balance of power, as the ruling Congress saw a reduction in its numbers.

The election for the 6 vacant assembly seats will take place on June 1 along with the 7th and the final phase of the Lok Sabha election, according to the Election Commission of India.

Himachal Pradesh has four Lok Sabha constituencies - Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur and Shimla. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections BJP had won all the four seats.

(With inputs from agencies)