Himachal Pradesh Political Crisis: Amid the continuing crisis in Himachal Pradesh, nine former MLAs in the hill state who tendered their resignations joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday. The MLAs joining the saffron party included six disqualified Congress legislators and three independents. The former lawmakers slammed the Congress government in the state headed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and said that the development in the state has been completely at a halt and the government is on the ventilator.
After joining the BJP, one of the three independent MLAs, KL Thakur, said that the government in the hill state will not last long, and many MLAs of the grand old party are in touch with the saffron camp.
"The Congress govt which was formed with high hopes in the state hasn't delivered on any of its promises... Earlier the BJP govt under the leadership of Jairam Thakur has done many works. But now, things are different. It seems this govt won't last long, many of the MLAs (of Congress) are in contact with the BJP," Thakur said.
The former Congress MLAs who joined the BJP are Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto -- all disqualified on February 29 for defying a party whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the state government during a cut motion and budget. On Friday, Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and KL Thakur, who were elected as Independents resigned and also joined the saffron party.
The MLAs joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Anurag Thakur, former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, its national general secretary Arun Singh and state unit president Rajeev Bindal.
One of the three independent MLAs of the hill state, Hoshyar Singh said that as an Independent MLA he voted for the candidate whom he wanted in the Rajya Sabha election and since then the Congress party has been working with the mindset of revenge and they filed FIR against the MLAs and their families.
"Be it economic condition or law & order or any other, things aren't going good in Himachal Pradesh. We are independent MLAs and we had every right to vote for the candidate whom we wanted in the Rajya Sabha election and we did but since then Congress party has been working with the mindset of revenge and they filed FIR against the MLAs and their families, this isn't good for the democracy. Developmental work has been completely at a halt in the last 15 months and hence we have decided this on our own (to resign and join the BJP). The govt is on the ventilator, anything can happen at any time," Hoshyar Singh told ANI.
Another MLA Ravi Thakur said that he voted for Harsh Mahajan, keeping his constituency Lahaul-Spiti in mind. "90% of the total budget of Himachal Pradesh comes from the centre. This is why I voted for Harsh Mahajan, keeping my constituency Lahaul-Spiti in mind... It was unfortunate that the speaker of the assembly suspended us without any reason... When we came to Delhi to fight our case in the SC, Harsh Mahajan provided us with a lawyer but Abhishek Manu Singhvi came to fight the case with 21 lawyers," he said.
Rebel Himachal MLA Inder Dutt Lakhanpal said, "The functionality of the INC has been broken. Neither is there any influence of the High Command nor is there any respect left for the party workers... They nominated that person for the Rajya Sabha from Himachal, who is known to have fought against the rights of our state in the SC."
One of the rebel Himachal MLA Chaitanya Sharma said, "... What went behind all this needs to be discussed in great detail in the coming days. Talking about Rajya Sabha elections, within the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution, every citizen is eligible to vote as per their conscience. We have just exercised our right and voted for a resident of Himachal Pradesh Harsh Mahajan... If the thoughts and ideas of a person are suppressed, and the person is sidelined, it is not just a loss of the person's self-respect but it is also a loss of the people who've elected the person."
With the disqualification of the six Congress MLAs, the strength of the ruling party came down from 39 to 33 in the now 62-member assembly. Its original strength is 68. The BJP has 25 members. The Speaker, who can vote only in the case of a tie during a floor test, is affiliated to the Congress. The resignations of the three Independent MLAs have further reduced the assembly's strength.