Amid ongoing political crisis, six former MLAs of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, who were disqualified as Congress legislators after defying a party whip, joined the BJP on Saturday. The MLAs are: Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto.
They joined the saffron party in the presence of Union Minister Anurag Thakur, former Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and its state unit president Rajeev Bindal.
All the elected Congress MLAs were disqualified on February 29 for defying a party whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the state government during a cut motion and budget.
Thakur welcomed the former lawmakers into the party, stating that their inclusion would bolster the BJP. He criticized the Congress government in the state for its alleged failure to deliver on promises, resulting in widespread dissatisfaction among the populace. Thakur highlighted the support these leaders provided to the BJP in the recent Rajya Sabha election, which he interpreted as indicative of public dissatisfaction with the Congress..
The Election Commission has announced bypolls for their constituencies and they are expected to contest as BJP candidates.
Meanwhile, three Independent MLAs — Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and KL Thakur — who submitted their resignations on Friday, are also likely to join the BJP soon.
Last month, the Congress government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu faced a crisis when the BJP secured victory in the Rajya Sabha poll for the state’s sole seat with the backing of these nine MLAs.
With the disqualification of the six Congress MLAs, the ruling party’s strength in the assembly decreased from 39 to 33 out of a total of 62 members. Initially, the party had 68 members. Meanwhile, the BJP holds 25 seats. The Speaker, who only votes in case of a tie during a floor test, is aligned with the Congress. Furthermore, the resignations of the three Independent MLAs have contributed to the further reduction of the assembly’s strength.