Six Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh moved the Supreme Court against the Speaker's verdict disqualifying them from the state Assembly.
The ex-MLAs have filed a petition in the top court through Chetanya Sharma against the February 29 decision of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. The six disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma.
These six MLAs were disqualified after they rebeled against the Congress party government in the state during the Rajya Sabha elections and voted for the BJP nominee. They also abstained from voting on the Budget, defying a party whip.
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The Himachal Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified these six Congress MLAs by exercising his powers under the Anti-Defection law. The six disqualified MLAs cross-voted in the recently-concluded Rajya Sabha Elections in the state.
As a result, Congress candidate and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated by the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in elections to the single seat for Rajya Sabha.
While delivering his verdict, Pathania said he was looking to prevent 'Aya Ram gaya Ram' politics. This phrase was also recently used in context of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's return to the NDA. This phrase goes back to the 1960s when defections by political leaders were becoming a common way to destabilise elected governments.
In an Assembly of 68 MLAs the Congress had won 40 seats. It also had the support of three independent MLAs. When Sukhvinder Sukhu took oath as the chief minister of the state, the Congress was well above the majority mark of 35 (required to form a government).
After six MLAs were disqualified, Congress the effective strength of the House has gone down from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.