Amid uncanny political heat triggered by a rebellion in the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the three independent MLAs also resigned from their membership in the HP Assembly today, paving the way for new political equations in the state.’
Independent MLAs, KL Thakur (Nalagarh), Hoshiar Singh (Dehra) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) submitted their resignation from MLAship to the Secretary, HP Vidhan Sabha.. Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur was also present when the Independent MLAs resigned.
“We have resigned because the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government was continuously harassing us," three of them said while talking to the media after their resignation.
They are likely to join the BJP, together with the six disqualified rebel Congress MLAs, who may withdraw their case against their disqualification from the Supreme Court.
The Election Commission of India has already declared the dates of the by-poll to six Assembly constituencies in HP, which were earlier represented by the disqualified rebel Congress MLAs, on June 1, 2024.
Three more Assembly constituencies would now go to the by-poll, though the date has to come from the ECI.
The six disqualified MLAs of Congress and the three Independents had voted for the BJP nominee in the Rajya Sabha poll on February 27, leading to his victory in the Congress-ruled state.
While Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has been targeting the Congress rebels and one of these Independent MLAs with allegations of having been allured by a ‘money trap’ at the instance of the opposition BJP, which is aiming to destabilise the Congress government, all of these nine leaders (six disqualified and three Independents who resigned) have alleged humiliation in the Sukhu government as a reason for the political mess.
The BJP has rebutted the CM’s allegations and said, “The rebellion is against the CongressCM in his party. How can he blame the BJP for this?.”
The nine Assembly constituencies, which have now fallen vacant in 68 membered Himachal Assembly, are, Sujanpur, Hamirpur and Barsar in Hamirpur district, Dharamshala and Dehra in Kangra district, Lahaul & Spiti in Lahaul & Spiti district, Nalagarh in Solan district, Gagret and Kutlehr in Una.
It is the worst-ever rebellion leading to the disqualification of ruling party MLAs and resignation by Independent MLAs in any government in Himachal Pradesh, where nine Assembly segments have fallen vacant in just 14 months of rule.
In the 59-member HP Assembly now, Congress has a strength of 34 and BJP has 25 MLAs.
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