Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Rajinder Rana, who was among the six lawmakers disqualified by Speaker after cross-voting in Rajya Sabha elections, on Saturday slammed state chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, saying the latter has resorted to low-level politics.
Rana said that Speaker’s decision to disqualify him and five other rebel Congress MLAs was taken under pressure and without taking the law into account.
“We will go to the court soon. This disqualification by the Speaker was done completely under pressure. The law was not taken into account… The police have started issuing challans against the supporters of those MLAs who have cross-voted… We will protect the self-respect of this state,” he said.
Rana was among the six Congress MLAs who turned rebel and cross voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha election in Himachal Pradesh held on Tuesday.
Their rebellion resulted in humiliating defeat of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi despite the ruling having majority to easily win the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state.
Moreover, it led to a serious political crisis in Himachal Pradesh and brought the Sukhu government on the verge of a collapse.
Following their rebellion, the six MLAs were disqualified by Himachal Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified them with immediate effect.
“Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves…I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect,” the Speaker had said.
He stated that the six Congress MLAs — Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Divender Kumar (Bhutto) — who have defied party whip to vote in favour of the government on the Financial Bill.