Himachal Pradesh Crisis: Assembly Speaker disqualifies 6 cross-voting Congress MLAs

Himachal Pradesh Assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Friday disqualified the six rebel Congress MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election. The six MLAs, namely Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect. The decision after a petition was filed under the anti-defection law by Congress MLA and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Wardhan Chauhan.

“Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves. I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect," Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said. He further added that the six members have been suspended not for cross-voting, but specifically for violating the party whip and skipping the budget session. The state budget was passed in the Assembly after 15 BJP MLAs were suspended by the speaker.

This move temporarily puts an end to the two-day scare of the incumbent state government’s fall from power in a no-trust vote and the BJP’s return to power in the state, since the six members had voted in favour of the opposition.

On February 27, along with the six Congress MLAs, three Independent MLAs who previously supported the Congress party had also voted in favour of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha elections. Elections were held for a single Rajya Sabha seat in the state, and the Congress, despite having a majority with 40 out of 68 seats in the assembly, tied with the opposition securing only 34 votes. BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan was declared the winner after drawing lots.

Following the disqualification of six MLAs, the Congress now holds 34 out of 62 seats in the Assembly, two more than the majority mark of 32.​