Assembly Speaker of Himachal Pradesh suspends 15 BJP MLAs, including Jairam Thakur
Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Kuldeep Singh Pathania dismissed 15 BJP legislators on Wednesday, including opposition leader Jairam Thakur, for reportedly using profanity and yelling in the Speaker’s chamber.
The other fourteen BJP MLAs under suspension are Puran Thakur, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Hans Raj, Randheer Sharma, Vinod Kumar, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Balbir Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Surender Shori, Deep Raj, and Inder Singh Gandhi.
Jairam Thakur told reporters earlier in the morning, “We are concerned that Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania might suspend the BJP MLAs so that the budget can be passed in the Vidhan Sabha.”
He added that the Rajya Sabha election had shown the Congress government’s minority status and called on Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the chief minister, to step down.
The action was taken a day after the BJP’s nominee, Harsh Mahajan, defeated Congressman Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the state’s only Rajya Sabha seat on Tuesday as a result of cross-voting by state Congressmen.
A plan to remove BJP MLAs
After State Parliamentary Party Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan presented a motion that the MLAs be removed from the chamber, the Speaker suspended the BJP lawmakers.
Due to disturbances, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly was postponed till 12 p.m. Opposition members staged demonstrations in the House’s well.
However, the BJP has labeled this as an attempt by the Congress to keep its government in place before the Budget session.
“Government in Congress is falling. Thus, efforts are on to suspend them. Every Vidhan Sabha uses these kinds of delay tactics.From here, Congress has disassembled. They will fail at whatever they do right now. Here, the BJP will constitute the government.I have the backing of nine MLAs who cast a cross-vote,” Harsh Mahajan said.
Himachal Pradesh Minister Vikramaditya Singh steps down
In the meanwhile, state minister Vikramaditya Singh, who was the son of former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh, resigned on Wednesday.
“All I want to say is that it is not right for me to stay in the government under the present conditions. I thus have made the decision to leave the Council of Ministers. At a news conference, Vikramaditya Singh announced his resignation as a minister.
The administration is having difficulties ahead of the assembly’s vote on the state finance bill and during the assembly’s annual budget session.
