In the run-up to the bye-elections to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls in six Assembly constituencies of Himachal Pradesh on June 1, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its candidates.

The party has given tickets to all the six Congress rebels who recently joined the party on March 23. These rebels will be re-contesting elections from the same constituencies they won on the Congress ticket in the Assembly elections held in 2022.

The candidates include Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lhaul-Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) and Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret).

The rebel MLAs had deepened the political crisis in Congress after joining the BJP along with the three independent MLAs in Delhi on Saturday.

These rebel MLAs had cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27 for the state’s lone seat, in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, effecting a shocking defeat to Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Sanghvi despite the Congress being in majority with 40 members. There were 25 BJP members and three independent MLAs.

After cross-voting, the rebel MLAs were disqualified under the provisions of anti-defection law by the State Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29, for defying the party whip to be present in the House to vote in favour of the state government during the cut motion and Budget session. After their disqualification, these six rebel MLAs ceased to be members of the House. They approached the Supreme Court and on March 18, the court refused a stay for their disqualification.

Meanwhile, National Students Union of India (NSUI) activists affiliated to Congress, on Tuesday, protested against the disqualified rebel MLA Ravi Thakur in Shimla for betraying Congress and joining the BJP.

The NSUI activists were holding a blood donation camp at the historic Ridge when they saw Ravi Thakur. They shouted slogans against him and tried to ‘gherao’ him.

However, BJP workers intervened to ensure his safety took him inside the restaurant on the Ridge in Shimla, where there was a scheduled BJP press conference.

The conference was to be addressed by Rajya Sabha member Harsh Mahajan, BJP leader Balbir Verma and Ravi Thakur.BJP spokesperson Karna Nanda said that Thakur was safe and the situation was brought under control by the CRPF assisted by the police personnel of Shimla who had been immediately called.

“We will urge the party high command not to withdraw the CRPF security cover of the six rebel MLAs until the election process is complete,” said Nanda.