6 Congress MLAs Disqualified in Himachal Following Their Cross-Voting in RS Polls

New Delhi: Six Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh who cross-voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha election were disqualified from the Assembly by the Speaker.  announced today.

The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma.

Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said they have been disqualified for defying the party whip to vote in favour of the government on the Finance Bill in the house. The actions of the six MLAs violated the anti-defection law, the Speaker said.

The Himachal Assembly passed the state Budget on Wednesday after the Speaker suspended 15 BJP MLAs.

On Wednesday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday questioned whether the BJP, with just 25 MLAs, was working overtime to overthrow the Himachal Pradesh government.

Minus the six disqualified MLAs, the Congress now has 34 MLAs in the 62-member house. Three independent MLAs who supported the Congress, also cross-voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha election.

“In democracy, the public has the right to choose the government of their choice. The people of Himachal Pradesh used this right and formed the Congress government with a clear majority. But BJP wants to crush this right of the people by misusing money power, power of agencies and power of the Centre,” Priyanka Gandhi said in a post on X in Hindi.