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Himachal Pradesh: 3 Independent MLAs, 6 Congress Rebels Join BJP

Three independent MLAs, along with six Congress rebels in Himachal Pradesh, who supported a BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections last month, joined the BJP in Delhi on Friday.

The Congress party faces more challenges as six rebel MLAs, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devendra Bhutto, Rajendra Rana, and Chaitanya Sharma, have switched to the BJP. This happened in the presence of Himachal Pradesh BJP President Rajiv Bindal and Union Minister Anurag Thakur.

In another development, three independent MLAs who resigned are—Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur constituency), Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra constituency), and K L Thakur (Nalagarh constituency)—submitted their resignations to the Himachal Pradesh Assembly secretary Yash Paul Sharma on March 22. This event occurred in the presence of former CM and senior BJP leader Jairam Thakur and other BJP MLAs.

During the 2022 Assembly polls, all three Independent MLAs had requested BJP tickets but were denied. As a result, they contested as Independents.

However, after Congress formed the government with 40 legislators, the three Independents supported the government.

The Election Commission of India on March 16 has announced by-elections for six assembly seats that became vacant due to the disqualification of Congress legislators. Additionally, four Lok Sabha seats will also go to by-polls in the final phase on June 1.

After resigning, Hoshiyar Singh stated, “We’ll join BJP, contest on their ticket.” He cited voting against Congress in Rajya Sabha polls due to conscience. Singh criticized state government’s vendetta politics post-polls. “We’ll join BJP under Modi, Shah, and Nadda,” he concluded.

The Independent MLAs accused Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of targeting them and their families by filing false cases against them.

In response, Chief Minister Sukhu stated that the Independent MLAs should have respected the people’s mandate and not resigned.

He also mentioned that it needs to be investigated whether money was involved in the situation or if the MLAs were pressured.

Following the disqualification of six Congress MLAs, the ruling Congress’s strength decreased from 40 to 34, including the speaker, in the 68-member Assembly.

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