Ahead Of Lok Sabha Polls, 6 Rebel Congress MLAs & 3 Independents From Himachal Join BJP

Six rebel Congress MLAs, who were disqualified from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly last month, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday along with three Independents ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

They joined the saffron camp in the presence of Union Minister Anurag Thakur, state LoP Jairam Thakur and Himachal BJP chief Rajiv Bindal.

Political scenario in Himachal took a dramatic turn after the six rebel Congress MLAs and three Independents, who supported Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government, cross-voted for BJP’s candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.

The Supreme Court last week refused to stay the order of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly speaker disqualifying the rebel Congress leaders.

The two-judge bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta sought the Assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania’s response in four week. It said that pending adjudication of their plea, the six rebel Congress MLAs will not be allowed to vote or participate in the Assembly proceedings.

It posted the matter for listing on May 6 and gave the rebel MLAs a week to file their rejoinder.

The disqualified MLAs are– Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala) and Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), both ministerial aspirants; Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Badsar); Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti); Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret); and Devender Bhutto (Kutlehar).

Earlier this month, Himachal’s high-profile minister Vikramaditya Singh had reportedly met the six rebel Congress MLAs at a hotel in Haryana’s Panchkula. Singh — son of Himachal Congress president Pratibha Singh — was said to have told Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to take back the legislators.

“The rebel MLAs have accepted their mistake. We must reconsider as anything is possible in politics,” top sources in the Congress quoted Singh as telling Sukhu.

Later in the day, sources had told News18 that two-three other Congress MLAs also went to meet the rebel MLAs.

Before moving the top court, the six rebel Congress MLAs had also moved the High Court challenging their disqualification.

Other than cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, the six had also abstained from voting on Budget in the assembly, defying a party whip to vote in favour of the government on the Finance Bill. The ruling Congress had sought their disqualification on this basis.

It was for the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh that any MLA had been disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Announcing the disqualification of the six rebel MLAs at a press conference, the Speaker had said they attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law as they defied the whip and ceased to be members of the House with immediate effect.

Following the disqualification of the rebel MLAs, the Himachal Assembly’s effective strength went down to 62 from 68, while the number of Congress MLAs shrunk to 34 from 40.

(With PTI inputs)