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Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker expels 15 BJP MLAs amid Congress' political crisis

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 28 Feb 2024, 02:23 pm

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Wednesday expelled 15 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs amid the Congress' political crisis triggered due to its lawmakers' cross-voting in favour of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha elections.

The 15 BJP MLAs include Jairam Thakur, Vipin Singh Parmar, Randheer Sharma, Lokender Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Balbir Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Surender Shori, Deep Raj, Puran Thakur, Inder Singh Gandhi, Dileep Thakur, and Inder Singh Gandhi.

They were expelled over their sloganeering and alleged misconduct on the first day of the Budget session.

Congress plunges into crisis

Despite being in power, the Sukhvinder Sukhu-led Congress government faced trouble on Tuesday after several ruling party MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP, which has only 25 MLAs in the 68-member assembly.

The BJP seeks the no-trust motion on a day the Congress government will place its budget in the assembly.

Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania met Governor Pratap Shukla at the Raj Bhavan in the morning.

Declaring the victory of the BJP candidate, Harsh Mahajan, Leader of the Opposition, Jairam Thakur said: "Despite having such a huge majority, the Congress has lost the Rajya Sabha election in Himachal Pradesh.

"I want to congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President JP Nadda and (Home Minister) Amit Shah. We pulled off a victory when our chances seemed very low."

As the Congress has 40 MLAs in the Assembly, its candidate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, was expected to win comfortably.

During voting on Tuesday, six Congress MLAs and three Independents supporting the government cast their ballots for the BJP, according to reports.

Helped by six Congress MLAs and three Independents, the BJP secured 34 ballots for Mahajan, reducing the votes for Singhvi to the same number. The winner was then decided through a draw of lots, which went in Mahajan's favour.

After the results were declared, Singhvi said: "Any party fielding a candidate when it has just 25 MLAs and the government has the support of 43 sends out only one message - that they are shamelessly planning to do something that the law does not allow.

"And I am not talking about Mr Mahajan or this election alone, I am talking about the principle."