Six Congress MLAs Disqualified in Himachal Assembly for BJP Cross-Voting

The six Congress MLAs who cast multiple votes in the Rajya Sabha elections on Thursday were disqualified by Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Kuldeep Singh Pathania declared, “I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect. Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves.” The six MLAs disqualified are Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Davinder K Bhutto, Rajinder Rana, and Sudhir Sharma.

Congress MLA and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Harsh Wardhan Chauhan filed a petition to disqualify the six MLAs under the anti-defection law. In the 68-member state assembly following the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress had 40 MLAs and the BJP had 25. Independents occupy the final three seats. The house’s strength drops from 68 to 62 after the six rebel MLAs were disqualified, with 32 serving as the halfway point. The Congress now has 34 MLAs after losing six MLAs, while the BJP, including independents, has 28. Now, the Congress’s future will depend on its capacity to maintain the unity of the rest of its flock.

Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, summoned all of the Congress MLAs to a “breakfast meeting” in Shimla earlier today. “This meeting is crucial. See what transpires… This is a non-official meeting, according to party MLA Ashish Butail. Sudarshan Singh Bablu, a Congress MLA, declared, “The Chief Minister has invited everyone to breakfast. Let’s see what conversations are going on. The message arrived last night. The Chief Minister will continue to serve as the head of our government.”

The meeting is also being attended by Congress’ central observers Bhupinder Hooda and DK Shivakumar. The observers had met the MLAs individually on Wednesday and are expected to report to the party high command today.
The BJP has claimed the Congress had lost the moral standing to be in power after losing majority in the Assembly.