Amid political turbulence in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh, the six rebel Congress MLAs who were disqualified from the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly last month, joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Saturday. They were joined by the three Independent MLAs who had submitted their resignations to the State Assembly secretary on Friday.
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The three Independents who have now joined the BJP are Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh, and K.L. Thakur. The six former Congress MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, and Kutlehar MLA Davinder Bhutto. They joined the BJP in New Delhi, in the presence of Himachal Pradesh BJP president Rajiv Bindal and Union Minister Anurag Thakur.
The six Congress legislators who had cross-voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha election on February 27 were disqualified on the grounds of their absence from the Assembly when the State Budget and the Finance Bill were being put to the vote, defying a party whip to vote in favour of the government. The three Independents had voted in favour of the BJP.
Also read | On cross-voting in Rajya Sabha elections | Explained
Following the disqualifications, six Assembly constituencies had fallen vacant, and the Election Commission had announced a byelection for the Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul-Spiti, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar seats. Now, after the resignations of the three Independents, it is expected that bypolls will also be held for the three constituencies of Hamirpur, Nalagarh, and Dehra.