6 Himachal Pradesh MLAs Moves SC against Disqualification

Six Congress MLAs, who were disqualified for cross-voting in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging their disqualification.

The former MLAs have challenged the decision made on February 29 by the state Legislative Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.

These Congress dissidents, who supported the BJP nominee in the Rajya Sabha polls, subsequently refrained from participating in the Budget vote, contravening a party directive. The governing Congress party pursued their disqualification on this basis.

The ousted MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma. As a consequence of their disqualification, the effective House strength decreased from 68 to 62, with the number of Congress MLAs diminishing from 40 to 34.