Just ahead of the Assembly by-poll results of six constituencies on June 4, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker, Kuldeep Singh Pathania today accepted the resignation of the three Independent MLAs from the state Assembly, paving the way for by-polls to three more constituencies in Himachal Pradesh.
The three Independents, Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur), Hoshiar Singh (Dehra), and K L Thakur (Nalagarh) had resigned on March 22 this year and had joined the BJP the next day. When the Speaker kept their resignation pending for acceptance for long, the three Independent MLAs had approached the High Court, which had yet to give an order in this regard.
"Another petition was filed by Congress leader Jagat Singh Negi seeking disqualification of these MLAs under the anti-defection law as they joined the BJP before acceptance of the resignation but as I have accepted the resignations. So, the other petition would automatically become infructuous," Pathania said.
"The net result is that they cease to be members of the 14th assembly, whether you accept the resignation or disqualify. I have not passed a harsh order," he added.
The Independent MLAs had voted against the ruling Congress in the Rajya Sabha election on February 27 and with six Congress rebels also cross-voting, the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan had won the election with a draw of lots against Congress party’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
This had pushed the Congress government into a crisis of sorts in HP.
However, the rebels were caught on the wrong foot, when they missed the House proceedings the next day, defying the party whip to be present in the Assembly when the budget was to be passed. Within a day, they were disqualified from the state Assembly by the Speaker on a petition by Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Harshvardhan Chauhan.
The rebels had later joined the BJP. The three Independent MLAs had also resigned from the Assembly after some days, alleging discrimination against their constituencies, and had joined the BJP. The Speaker had however kept their resignations pending while sending them notices., asking whether they had resigned under pressure.
In this quick turn of events, the by-polls to the six constituencies- Badsar, Sujanpur, Kutlehar, Gagret, Dharamshala, and Lahaul & Spiti, vacated due to disqualification of Congress rebels were held on June 1, along with Lok Sabha polls in Himachal. The results will be declared on June 4.
At present, with the disqualification of these three independent MLAs, the state Assembly has 59 out of 68 members. Out of these, Congress has 34 and BJP 25. After the by-poll results on June 4, the figure will change.
Even in the extreme case, the Congress will remain ahead of BJP in the number game in the state Assembly.
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