Cracking the whip in favour of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs who voted for BJP in the recently-held Rajya Sabha election.
Pathania said, “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.”
He stated that the six Congress MLAs — Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Divender Kumar (Bhutto) — who have defied party whip to vote in favour of the government on the Financial Bill, were disqualified with immediate effect.
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The Speaker has suspended 15 BJP MLAs in the Assembly yesterday.
“They started raising slogans after the House was adjourned… They were trying to create an atmosphere where they could attack me… I requested them to sit but they didn’t listen,” he has said.
The ruling Congress had suffered humiliating defeat in the Rajya Sabha elections held on Tuesday despite having the majority.
The six rebel MLAs, along with three independents who also supported the Sukhu government had cross voted in favour of BJP candidate resulting in a draw.
The final results were then decided through a draw of lots, in which BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan defeated Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
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