Himachal monsoon session nearing, but no clarity yet on fate of 15 suspended BJP MLAs
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More than five months after 15 BJP MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, were suspended from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly over alleged misconduct in the House, there is no clarity on their suspension status and whether they would be allowed to attend the forthcoming monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha.
The monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha is to be convened from August 27 to September 9 (2024) in Shimla. It will have 10 sittings.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had on February 28 suspended 15 BJP MLAs for allegedly shouting slogans and misconduct in the Chamber of the Speaker.
The other 14 suspended BJP MLAs include Vipin Singh Parmar, Randheer Sharma, Lokender Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Balbir Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Surender Shori, Deep Raj, Puran Thakur, Inder Singh Gandhi, Dileep Thakur and Inder Singh Gandhi.
Jai Ram Thakur had then alleged that he was apprehensive that Speaker Pathania might suspend the BJP MLAs so that the budget could be passed in the Vidhan Sabha as several Congress MLAs had rebelled against the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government.
The suspensions had come a day after the BJP on February 27 won Himachal Pradesh’s lone Rajya Sabha seat with its candidate Harsh Mahajan defeating Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi due to cross-voting by six MLAs of the state’s ruling Congress. Three Independent MLAs too had voted for Mahajan.
The loss in the Rajya Sabha election, Jai Ram had claimed, made it clear that the Congress government was in minority and he demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Sukhu.
A delegation of BJP MLAs had even sought the Governor’s intervention amid apprehensions that the Speaker might suspend them or disqualify the Congress legislators who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election. Soon after, Speaker Kuldeep Pathania suspended the 15 BJP MLAs for “misbehaving” with marshalls outside his office and creating disorder in the House.
The 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly then has 40 Congress MLAs, 25 BJP legislators and three independents. The disqualification of the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted and resignation by the three Independents had necessitated byelections in these nine seats, six of which were won by the Congress and three by the BJP. The latest House tally is Congress 40 and the BJP 28.
