Six former Himachal Pradesh MLAs including Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devendra Bhutto, Rajendra Rana, and Chaitanya Sharma on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Union Minister Anurag Thakur and State BJP chief Rajiv Bindal.
“The Congress government is not fulfilling the guarantees it made to the people of Himachal Pradesh. We are answerable to the people, but when they asked us, we had no answer…,” rebel Himachal MLA Rajendra Rana said.
“The CM had become a dictator and would humiliate people. There was no one to hear the MLAs. The government is not functioning according to the MLAs, but it is being run by Sikhvinder Sukhu and his aides. Himachal government is on the ventilator…,” he added.
The political crisis was triggered in Himachal Pradesh a few months back when these candidates voted for the Rajya Sabha elections in 2024. They are contemplating withdrawal of their plea from the Supreme Court in which they have challenged an order of the Assembly speaker disqualifying them.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Speaker’s decision to disqualify them as MLAs. The rebel Congress leaders were camping in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh with three independent MLAs and 3 BJP MLAs and claimed that they would go back to the hill state only after the top court heard their plea against the disqualification.
Apart from the humiliating defeat of Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the rebellion exposed the factionalism creeping in the Congress unit of Himachal Pradesh and displeasure against Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
For some days, the politics of Himachal Pradesh remained heated up, but Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s political mind and some intervention from the party’s high-command managed and situation. Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania moved swiftly and disqualified the six Congress MLAs, who voted for the BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.
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Published: 23 Mar 2024, 01:14 PM IST
