The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday ended the pension of those former MLAs who had rebelled against the Congress-led state government this year and later joined the BJP.

The Assembly took this decision on Wednesday under the Anti-Defection Law and in this regard passed the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly ( Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill 2024.

The House passed this Bill by voice vote amid opposition from the opposition. After the passage of the bill, it will now be sent for the approval of the Governor and will become a law only after getting the approval.

“A person shall not be entitled for pension under the Act, if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution (Anti-Defection Law),” states the Bill.

Earlier responding to the discussion on this amendment bill, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, ‘Power and chair do not always stay together, but principles remain alive in politics. Members who changed parties may be angry with me, but they betrayed the party.”

The Amendment Bill has been presented with the aim of strengthening democratic values, he asserted.

He urged the House to support the amendment bill for a clean democracy so that no one can dare to change parties in future.

The Chief Minister had introduced the Amendment Bill in the House on Tuesday. The bill was discussed in the House on Wednesday.

BJP’s Rakesh Jamwal, expressing his views on the amendments made in the bill, said that the amendment bill has been introduced in a hurry.

Questioning how this can be implemented with retrospective effect, he said that the government should consider it.

Randhir Sharma, BJP MLA claimed that the Bill was introduced in a spirit of revenge.

Referring to the political events of last February and cross voting by six Congress MLAs in the Rajya Sabha elections, he said that the members had not changed sides.

He said that the objective will not be achieved with this amendment and that the Chief Minister should self-introspect as to why the MLAs were angry.

He urged the bill to be sent to the select committee.

Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said that defection weakens democracy.

He said that those who commit the heinous act of toppling the government by defection should be punished.

Negi also urged for sending the Bill to the Select Committee.

Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, while participating in the discussion, said that this amendment bill smells of political revenge.

He said that Congress MLAs did not take BJP’s membership during the Rajya Sabha voting.

“The Assembly Speaker took action to disqualify the MLAs for disobeying the whip. Consequently, the MLAs who were declared disqualified became members of BJP. Hence, they do not come under the purview of Schedule 10 of the Constitution, ” he argued.