Himachal Assembly Speaker Accepts Resignations of Three Independent MLAs

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Monday accepted resignations of three Independent MLAs who had voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls."Resignations have been accepted and these three MLAs cease to be members of the 14th Vidhan Sabha with immediate effect," Pathania told reporters here.

Independent MLAs Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) and K L Thakur (Nalagarh) had voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections along with six Congress rebels.

The three MLAs resigned from the assembly on March 22 but the speaker did not accept their resignations, saying he had received a representation from the Congress legislative party that they had took the decision under duress and not voluntarily.

These MLAs joined the BJP on March 23 and moved the Himachal Pradesh High Court seeking directions to the speaker to accept their resignations. However, due to divergent views on whether the court could issue directions to the speaker in this regard, the matter was referred to a third judge. It is pending in the court.

The MLAs had also staged a dharna in the Vidhan Sabha complex to press their demand.

"Another petition was filed by Congress leader Jagat Singh Negi seeking disqualification of these MLAs under the anti-defection law as they joined the BJP before acceptance of the resignation but as I have accepted the resignations. So, the other petition would automatically become infructuous," Pathania said.

"The net result is that they cease to be members of the 14th assembly, whether you accept the resignation or disqualify. I have not passed a harsh order," he added.

Welcoming the speaker's decision, Thakur said it was a "delayed but correct decision".

"It would have been better had the speaker accepted the resignations earlier and paved the way for simultaneous elections (with the Lok Sabha polls) in these three assembly seats also," he said.

An early decision would have saved money and imposition of code of conduct again, he added.

Earlier, the speaker had disqualified six Congress rebels for defying a party whip to be present in the assembly and vote in favour of the government during the cut motions and budget.

The six seats held by these MLAs were declared vacant, bringing down the effective strength of the House from 68 to 62.

With the speaker accepting the resignations of the three Independent MLAs, the strength has come down further to 59. While the Congress has 34 MLAs, the BJP has 25.

The bypolls to the six assembly seats of Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret, Kutlehar, and Lahaul and Spiti that were vacated following the disqualification of the Congress rebels were held on June 1.

The BJP had fielded all the six turncoats from the seats they held as Congress members.