On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider a case from six renegades Congress MLAs who supported the BJP in the most recent Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections, challenging their disqualification. Based on the Congress’s argument that they were “defying” the party whip’s mandate to appear in the House.
Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma are among the disqualified MLAs from the BJP. The SC bench of justices will hear their plea against the Speaker’s February 29 decision. The rebel MLAs have made Pathania and state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan a party.
The Political Crisis in Himachal Pradesh
A six-member committee has been established by the Congress high command to improve coordination between the administration and the party’s organization in the hill state, amid an ongoing revolt inside the Himachal Pradesh unit. Two days before the committee’s establishment, eleven MLAs from Himachal Pradesh, six of whom were Congress and three of whom were independent, traveled to Uttarakhand, which is dominated by the BJP, and pledged to stay there until the Supreme Court considered their motion to be disqualified.
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However, Sukhu, along with Congress President Pratibha Singh, Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, Kaul Singh Thakur, Dhaniram Shandil, and Ram Lal Thakur, is leading a six-member committee to improve coordination between the government and Congress in Himachal Pradesh.
The committee is expected to address the political crisis in the hill state, which has been questioned by rebel Congress MLAs who have expressed disappointment with Sukhu’s statements and questioned his mindset of calling for compromise and naming them as “black snakes or shepherds.” However, Congress candidate Harsh Mahajan was defeated by BJP candidate Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh, and KL Thakur, who were independent MLAs who voted for the BJP candidate.
Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh move to the Supreme Court
Congress MLAs who cast multiple ballots in the recent Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections filed a petition with the Supreme Court contesting their disqualification. The former legislators have submitted an appeal against the ruling made by state Legislative Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29. In the Rajya Sabha elections, these Congress rebels who had supported the BJP candidate refrained from voting.
On this basis, the governing Congress had requested that they be disqualified. Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma are the disqualified MLAs. The House’s current strength has decreased from 68 to 62 members after their disqualification, while the number of Congress Members of Legislative Assembly has decreased from 40 to 34.
However, the rebel MLAs, Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma, who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls for the state seat and abstained from voting on the Budget, were disqualified by state Assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. The ruling Congress-led government managed to pass the Finance Bill by voice vote after the suspension of 15 BJP MLAs by Pathania.
At Least 9 More MLAs are in touch with us: Himachal Congress MLA
Defying Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s claim that some rebel legislators want to return, Rajinder Rana—one of the six Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs who cast a cross-party ballot in the Rajya Sabha elections and was subsequently disqualified from the assembly—said today that at least nine party legislators were in contact with them. Additionally, he charged that Mr. Sukhu had misled people with his remarks. “No one desires to go back. However, at least nine other MLAs have gotten in contact with us, Mr. Rana said to Press Trust of India.
However, The BJP won the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh, defeating Congress stalwart Singhvi and setting the stage for a no-trust motion in the assembly. The BJP’s candidate Harsh Mahajan defeated Congress stalwart Singhvi, resulting in a no-trust motion in the assembly.
However, BJP leader Sukhu claimed that “80% of the Congress is together” and that the rest are dissatisfied over “trivial issues”. He held discussions with six disqualified Congress MLAs and hoped the situation would improve after the formation of a coordination committee. The BJP’s decision to cross-vote in the Rajya Sabha elections was taken to uphold the honor of Himachal Pradesh and its people.
