Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs who engaged in cross voting during the Rajya Sabha polls.
He said, "Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves...I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect."
The six disqualified MLAs are Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal.
According to reports, the petition was filed by Congress MLA and parliamentary affairs Minister Harsh Wardhan Chauhan under the anti-defection law for disqualification of the six MLAs.
After the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress had 40 MLAs, while the BJP had 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents.
With the fresh disqualifications, the house strength has come down from 68 to 62 and the halfway mark is 32. With the loss of 6 MLAs, the Congress now has 34 MLAs and the BJP has 28 (with independents).
Now, the fortunes of the Congress rest on its ability to keep the rest of its flock together.
Notably, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had called a 'breakfast meeting' of all Congress MLAs in Shimla earlier today.
"It is an important meeting. Let's see what happens...This is an informal meeting," party MLA Ashish Butail said.
Congress MLA Sudarshan Singh Bablu said, "The CM has called everyone for breakfast. Let's see what discussions are taking place...We received the message last night. Our Government will continue under the leadership of the Chief Minister."
The meeting is also being attended by Congress' central observers Bhupinder Hooda and DK Shivakumar. The observers had met the MLAs individually on Wednesday and are expected to report to the party high command today.
Meanwhile, the BJP has claimed the Congress had lost the moral standing to be in power after losing majority in the Assembly.
