Himachal Crisis — 'Action Will Be Taken At Right Time': Congress On Cross Voting In RS Polls

Digvijay Singh stated that action will be taken against the six MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls which led to Congress' shocking defeat in Himachal Pradesh.

Following the cross voting for BJP by six of its MLAs, Congress faced a humiliating defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh last week. This led the saffron party to win even after the Congress had a clear majority with 40 out of 68 MLAs and the support of three independent MLAs. Congress MP Digvijay Singh commented on the row saying that action would be taken against the rebels at the right time. 

"Action will be taken against rebellions at the right time" ANI quoted Digvijay Singh while speaking to reporters in Morena.

After the cross-voting, all six Congress MLAs were disqualified from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly by Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania under the Anti-Defecation Law for abstaining from voting on the Budget in the Assembly.

The MLAs who were disqualified for cross-voting were Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, Davinder K Bhutto, Rajinder Rana, and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal. Subsequently, the strength of the 68-member state assembly has now come down to 62.

The MLAs were disqualified after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan filed a plea before the Speaker seeking their disqualification. However, as per reports, the six disqualified MLAs will be challenging their disqualification in court.

Earlier, 15 BJP MLAs were also expelled by the Speaker from the State Assembly on February 28 over misconduct in the Speaker's chmaber. The legislators that were suspended were Jairam Thakur, Vipin Singh Parmar, Randheer Sharma, Lokender Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Balbir Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Surender Shori, Deep Raj, Puran Thakur, Inder Singh Gandhi, Dileep Thakur. 

Singh also commented on the selection of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. He stated: "Our Central Election Committee will decide on this. A meeting of the screening committee was held, and now the matter will go into the hands of the CEC."

Digvijay Singh reached Morena on Friday to oversee the preparations as Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will enter Madhya Pradesh today.