The six Congress MLAs who were diqualified from the HimchalPradesh Assembly will by Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania will challenge their disqualification in court. The six rebel MLAs had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls and were disqualified for abstaining from voting on the Budget in the Assembly.
According to Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh, the rebel MLAs are preparing to take their fight to court. The news agency PTI also said that one of the disqualified MLAs has confirmed that they will appeal against the Speaker's order in the Supreme Court.
The six MLAs were disqualified under Anti-Defection law for abstaining from voting on cut motion and Budget in the state Assembly. They were disqualified for defying a party whip to vote in favour of the government.
The disqualified MLAs Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto will challenge their disqualification in court as Speaker's decision is subject to judicial review.
After their disqualification, now seats from Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar have fallen vacant. At present the number of MLAs in Himachal Assembly has shrunk from 68 to 62. Congress count came down from 40 to 34.
Announcing the verdict, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said that the six MLAs attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law as they defied the whip and ceased to be members of the House with immediate effect.
These disqualified MLAs had voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan for the lone seat in the Rajya Sabha elections and were not present in the House during voting on the Budget.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan filed plea before the Speaker seeking disqualification of these six MLAs under the anti-defection law.