Three Independent MLAs from Himachal Pradesh, who recently resigned as legislators and later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), staged a sit-in protest in Shimla on Saturday.
The three MLAs — Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh, and K.L. Thakur — picketed outside the State Assembly, protesting the non-acceptance of their resignations by Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.
Demanding that the Speaker accept their resignations immediately, they said that they had quit voluntarily, and were not under any pressure. Instead of accepting their resignations, the Speaker had issued notices to them, seeking an explanation of their actions, which they said was unjustified.
Bypolls announced
The three Independent MLAs had voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll, and subsequently tendered their resignations on March 22 and joined the BJP a day later.
Six former Congress MLAs also cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll on February 27 and then joined the BJP as well. All six — Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, and Davinder Bhutto — were disqualified from the State Assembly for defying a party whip, leaving their constituencies vacant. The Election Commission has announced byelections for these six Assembly constituencies — Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul-Spiti, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar — and the BJP has declared the former rebel Congressmen as its candidates for these seats.
The byelections will be held on June 1, the same day as voting will take place for Himachal Pradesh’s four Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming parliamentary election. However, as the resignations of the three Independents has not yet been accepted, it is unclear if bypolls will also be held for their Assembly constituencies of Hamirpur, Nalagarh, and Dehra.
