Amid the ongoing political crisis in Himachal Pradesh following the Congress candidate's defeat in the Rajya Sabha elections, the party observers have told the high command in their preliminary report that Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu should remain the Chief Minister till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, party sources said.
The Congress party earlier rushed three observers -- Bhupinder Hooda, Bhupesh Baghel, and DK Shivakumar -- after six Congress MLAs cross-voted and three independents backed the BJP candidate in the recent Rajya Sabha polls, which resulted in saffron party's Harsh Mahajan defeating grand old party's Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Top sources told News18 Hindi that Congress observers told the party leadership in their preliminary report that there is “huge dissatisfaction among the MLAs and ministers” against Chief Minister Sukhu. “The leadership should decide when to change the CM, before or after the Lok Sabha elections,” sources said.
Further, sources claimed that the “observers have given their opinion to the high command that Sukhu should remain the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”
At present, there is very little possibility of change in Himachal Pradesh CM's post as the observers adopted a positive attitude towards Sukhu, they added.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday announced that the six Congress MLAs would cease to be members of the state Assembly with immediate effect.
“Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbols, 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,” ANI quoted Pathania as saying.
“As per the anti-defection law, our secretariat received the petition filed against 6 legislators through the complainant who is also the Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Wardhan Chauhan. When a speaker acts under the 10th schedule then he does not enjoy the power and privileges of the speaker but his position is as a tribunal, here I am in the shape of a tribunal judge. This pronouncement is about those observations made by the Supreme Court and High Courts in various judgments,” he added.
The Congress MLAs, disqualified under the provisions of the anti-defection law, are Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Indradutt Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, and Devendra Bhutto.
Chief Minister Sukhu on Wednesday affirmed that the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh would continue to function for the full five-year term.
“Neither the high command nor anyone else has asked for resignation, and there is no such indication... The state BJP leaders lacked confidence in their own people, deploying CRPF and Haryana police, even resorting to the use of a helicopter,” PTI quoted Sukhu as saying.
On Thursday, Sukhu called a 'breakfast meeting' of all Congress MLAs in Shimla ahead of the Assembly session.
The Congress MLAs had met individually with the party observers DK Shivakumar and Bhupendra Hooda on Wednesday.
Before the Rajya Sabha polls, the Congress had 40 MLAs in the 68-member state Assembly, while the BJP had 25 and the remaining three seats were held by independents.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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