10-day long ‘Winter Carnival’ commences at Shimla
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu inaugurated the ten-day long Winter Carnival Shimla at The Ridge here on Tuesday.
The Himachal Pradesh political crisis seems to be not over yet as 11 MLAs from the state, including six Congress rebels and three independents, arrived in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand on Saturday. A Haryana bus took the MLAs to Rishikesh’s Taj Hotel amid tight security.
The six rebel Congress MLAs, who have been disqualified from Assembly and reached Rishikesh are Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal.
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The MLAs brought the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government on the verge of a collapse after they rebelled against the party and cross voted in favour of BJP candidate in the recently held Rajya Sabha elections.
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The Congress had 40 MLAs, while the BJP had 25 in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly. The remaining three seats were held by independents, who were also supporting the Sukhu government.
Sukhu, while speaking to reporters on Friday in Palampur said, “Some MLAs are sad. They have been kept under CRPF security. Is this how democracy will remain strong? Horsetrading weakens the democracy.”
“I have just come to know through social media that they (rebel MLAs) were taken away from the hotel in Panchkula and a charter plane flew from Chandigarh airport. I don’t know where it will land. This is because their family members were putting pressure on them,” he said.
After they abstained from voting on the budget following their cross voting in last month’s Rajya Sabha polls against party candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, six Congress members were disqualified by Himachal assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.
Pathania had said that the six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves.
(With ANI inputs)
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