Himachal: BJP fields 6 former Congress MLAs in by-polls

March 26, 2024

Shimla: In a sign of increasing troubles for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday fielded six disqualified Congress rebel MLAs in the Assembly by-polls, days after the joined the party.

All six now disqualified Congress MLAs–Rajinder Singh Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, and Davinder Bhutto– had cross-voted in in the Rajya Sabha election in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan against Congress’ senior leader Abhishek Mani Singhvi.

The BJP has fielded Ravi Thakur from Lahaul-Spiti, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret and Devinder Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehar.

Apart from these six MLAs, three independents–Hoshyar Singh, Ashish Sharma, and K.L. Thakur–also left the Sukhu camp for the BJP, leading to Singhvi’s defeat in the Rajya Sabha elections.

The rebel Congress MLAs had joined the BJP on Saturday. Along with them, three independent MLAs, who resigned from their post on Friday (March 22) in the presence of BJP leaders, too, joined the party, thereby cementing the BJP’s position ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly.

Apart from elections in four Lok Sabha constituencies, Himachal Pradesh will witness bypolls in six assembly constituencies, which were previously occupied by the rebel MLAs.