Six disqualified Congress MLAs to fight Himachal bypolls on BJP ticket
The bypolls will be held on June 1, on the same day the four Lok Sabha constituencies of Himachal vote in the seventh phase of the general elections
The six disqualified Congress MLAs in Himachal Pradesh will now fight the bypolls on BJP tickets. The six, along with three Independents, quit their seats and joined the BJP in Delhi on Saturday (March 23).
The saffron party has fielded Ravi Thakur from Lahaul and Spiti, Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, and Devinder Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehar.
The bypolls will be held on June 1, on the same day the four Lok Sabha constituencies of Himachal vote in the seventh phase of the general elections.
The Himachal crisis
The Congress disqualified the six MLAs on February 29 for defying the party’s whip to be present in the Assembly and vote in favour of the state government during a cut motion and budget.
With their disqualification and the resignations of the three Independent MLAs, the Congress’s strength in the House has come down from 39 to 33 in the present 59-member Assembly (actual strength is 68). The BJP currently has 25 members. The Speaker, who can vote only if there is a tie during a floor test, is with the Congress.
The Congress government in Himachal got a shock in February after the BJP won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state, thanks to support from the nine rebel MLAs. This was followed by a days-long political crisis, though the government survived. However, the question is, for how long?
BJP target
The BJP will be looking at bypoll wins to bring down the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government and may try to bring in more Congress legislators into its fold.
The disqualified MLAs joined the BJP last week in the presence of Union minister Anurag Thakur, former Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur, the party’s national general secretary Arun Singh, and state unit president Rajeev Bindal.