The membership of six rebel Congress MLAs Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Devender Bhutto (Kutlahar) and Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret) will be declared in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Thursday. President Kuldeep Singh Pathania has cancelled. He said six rebel MLAs of the ruling Congress had violated the party’s whip to vote in favor of the government on the Finance Bill. Due to which all those MLAs have been dismissed from the membership of the House with immediate effect.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania clarified that the provisions of the anti-defection law have been made applicable to all the six MLAs who contested the elections on the Congress symbol.
Speaking to the media here, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker said, “I announce that with immediate effect these six people will no longer be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly.”
Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan had demanded disqualification of six rebel Congress MLAs under the anti-defection law. It was only on their request that the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker canceled the membership of all the six MLAs in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly.
It is noteworthy that these six MLAs had cross-voted in support of the only BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha.
Meanwhile, Congress MLAs were called by Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu for a breakfast meeting here. Four MLAs including Vikramaditya Singh did not reach the CM residence.
The existence of the government led by Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has come under question after cross-voting with the support of six Congress MLAs and three independents.
BJP has won the only Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh after cross voting of six Congress MLAs.
In the 68-member assembly, 40 MLAs were from Congress, while 25 MLAs were from BJP and three were independent MLAs.
Six rebel Congress MLAs voted in favor of BJP, after which Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker has disqualified those six MLAs and terminated their membership, due to which the number of MLAs in the House will now be reduced to 62. Due to reduction in the number of MLAs in the House, the strength of the House has reduced and now the support of 32 MLAs will be required to gain majority.