Himachal Pradesh: BJP Pays Back For Cross-Voting In Rajya Sabha Elections, Nominates Six Former Congress MLAs For Assembly By-Polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared candidates for by-polls on six Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, which were vacated due to disqualification of Congress MLAs over cross-voting in Rajya Sabha elections.

The announcement made on Tuesday (26 March) gave tickets to the six disqualified Congress MLAs who joined the BJP a few days ago. Three independent MLAs too joined the BJP along with them.

Sudhir Sharma will contest from Dharamshala, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul and Spiti, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Chetanya Sharma from Gagret, and Devinder Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehar.

These legislators were disqualified on 29 February for defying a party whip and cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls. They were subsequently expelled from the Congress.

Last week, the Supreme Court refused to stay their disqualification. Following their disqualification, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly strength went down to 62 from 68 and the Congress currently has 34 MLAs, down from 40.

The BJP has 25 MLAs. If all the disqualified Congress MLAs win by-polls on the BJP ticket, the BJP tally will reach 31. According to the Election Commission's notification, nomination filing for these seats will begin on 7 May.

The BJP can also equate Congress' tally if all the three Independents, who resigned from the Assembly and pledged to contest on a BJP ticket, will also win the elections. However, by-polls for these seats are not notified yet.

The voting for the six seats is scheduled for 1 June along with four Lok Sabha seats of Himachal Pradesh. The counting will be done on 4 June.