Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs, who had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls, for abstaining from voting on the Budget in the assembly.
Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh, who withdrew his resignation from the cabinet two days ago, reportedly met the six rebel Congress lawmakers in Haryana’s Panchkula ahead of a visit to Delhi. These six MLAs had cross-voted in favour of the BJP in Rajya Sabha election on Tuesday.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs, who had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls, for abstaining from voting on the Budget in the assembly.
The disqualified MLAs are Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto.
The six rebel Congress MLAs had abstained from voting on cut motion and finance bill (Budget) in the assembly, defying a party whip to vote in favour of the government. The ruling Congress had sought their disqualification on this ground.
The meeting. that came after Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu assured on Thursday that all was well in the Congress-led state government, sparked uneasy again as Singh was expected to travel to Delhi to meet Union minister Nitin Gadkari as per his official schedule, a Hindustan Times report mentioned.
“Vikramaditya met us in Panchkula and that is all that I can say,” the report quoted a rebel lawmaker as saying.
Reacting to the meeting, Bhupinder Hooda who along with DK Shivakumar were deployed as troubleshooter to get the political crisis in Himachal Pradesh in control, said everything was fine".
"Minor differences keep occurring. The government will run with full power and fight together in the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
The six Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs who cross-voted in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections for one Rajya Sabha seat in the state on Tuesday have been disqualified by the assembly speaker. Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified the MLAs under anti-defection law for defying the party whip to vote in favour of government on Financial Bill.
The cross-voting by these six Congress MLAs brought the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Himachal Pradesh government on the brink after the Rajya Sabha election. The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma.
With clear indications of a rebellion, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government found itself in a political crisis after losing to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state due to cross-voting by these six Congress MLAs and three independents.
Amid the fresh scramble for power in the state after Rajya Sabha election, Himachal Pradesh Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh on Wednesday announced that he is quitting from the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu cabinet but hours later he said that he will not press for his resignation.
"I am submitting my resignation to the chief minister and the governor," Vikramaditya, son of former Hinchal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh, told said on Wednesday.
Several hours later after meeting with the central observers, Singh said he would not press for the resignation. "I have offered my resignation but the chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has not accepted it," he said.
Vikramaditya Singh said the central observers, DK Shivakumar and Bhupinder Hooda, have assured him that his concerns would be taken care of and he is not pressing for the resignation, and added that the organisation is more important than individuals.
"In the larger interest, I will not press for my resignation," he told the media persons earlier in the day.