All doors stay open in politics, Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh said on Wednesday, days after meeting with the state’s rebel Congress MLAs who were disqualified from the Assembly under the anti-defection law.
The six Congress rebels had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election last week, leading to the defeat of the party’s official candidate. This triggered a crisis, prompting the party’s central leadership to rush a team of observers. Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified the six MLAs for allegedly defying a party whip on voting for the state Budget.
Asked about the possibility of the rebels returning to the party fold, the public works department minister said, “Everything is possible in politics and all doors are open in politics.” Singh recently met senior Congress leaders in New Delhi, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, after holding talks with the six rebel MLAs in Panchkula. “I was officially assigned the responsibility of meeting the rebels and have done my duty,” he said here.
“Appraising the Congress high command of the current situation was my moral duty, which I have fulfilled, and now, the ball is in their court…,” Singh said.
“I have conveyed the views of the Congress rebels to the high command and vice-versa,” he added.
In a setback for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party last week won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat despite being in the minority with just 25 MLAs against 40 of the Congress as nine MLAs, including six from the Congress and three Independents, voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.
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