bjp-fields-independent-mlas-for-himachal-by-polls

Undeterred by the rebellion it is likely to cause within the party, the BJP has again chosen to field the three Independents, who resigned from the state Assembly to join BJP in March this year, for the Assembly by-polls slated for July 10. 

The BJP has fielded Hoshiar Singh from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and KL Thakur from Nalagarh Assembly constituencies, according to a party release here. 

The three of them had won the 2022 Assembly polls and incidentally, their nearest rivals in all the three constituencies were Congress candidates. 

 The BJP candidates, who fought the election against them in 2022, include one former minister in Dehra and two former MLAs in Hamirpur and Nalagarh. 

The Independents had surprised everyone when they had suddenly submitted their resignation to the Speaker of HP Assembly on March 23, in the midst of the crisis that Congress government was facing due to revolt within the party that ultimately led to disqualification of six rebels. After resignation, they had immediately joined BJP. 

However, their resignation kept pending with the Speaker, who sought an explanation from them as to whether they had submitted their resignation under pressure. The Independents had later approached the High Court on the issue. The matter was pending there also. In the meantime, before the results for the six Assembly by-polls were to come, the Speaker accepted their resignation. 

The sequence of events failed the BJP’s strategy to get the nine Assembly by-polls- six on seats vacated by the Congress rebels and three on the ones to be vacated by the Independents- conducted together on June 1. 

The BJP could win only two out of six Assembly by-polls after giving tickets to the disqualified Congress rebels at the cost of their own party leaders. The Congress emerged victorious in four Assembly segments. 

This has taken the strength of the Congress in the Assembly to 38  against BJP’s 27 in the House of 68. In the 2022 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 40 seats, BJP, 25 and three were independents.