While announcing candidates for assembly bypolls in several states, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday fielded six disqualified Congress MLAs of the Himachal Pradesh assembly days after they joined the party after leaving the Congress following the cross-voting controversy in Rajya Sabha polls this year.
Who all have been fielded?
In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP has named Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret) and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) as its candidates.
Furthermore, several Gujarat MLAs, including four from the Congress who joined the BJP recently, have also been fielded by the party for bypolls necessitated by their resignations.
In Gujarat, the BJP's candidates for bypolls to five seats include Arjun Modhvadiya, Chatursinh Chavda and Arvind Ladani.
Besides, the party has also named its candidates for the bypolls to two seats in West Bengal and one seat in Karnataka.
Congress MLAs disqualified after cross-voting row
After the Rajya Sabha elections that took place this year, six Congress MLAs were disqualified over defying a party whip and voting for the BJP candidate, which led to an embarrassing defeat for the ruling Congress in the state.
