Himachal Rajya Sabha election: 6 Congress MLAs disqualified under provisions of anti-defection law

SHIMLA: Six dissident Congress MLAs, who had voted for the BJP candidate in the Himachal Rajya Sabha election held on February 27, have been disqualified by speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, as the chairman of the Tribunal, under the provisions of anti-defection law.
The speaker said that the petition filed by parliamentary affairs minister Harshvardhan Chauhan disclosed that the above six MLAs had defied the whip issued by the party.
"Six MLAs, who contested on Congress symbol, attracted provisions of anti-defection law against themselves ... I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh assembly with immediate effect," Pathania said.
The disqualified MLAs are Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul-Spiti, Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret and Davinder Bhutto from Kutlehar.
The speaker said that he heard the counsels of both sides for two hours on Wednesday after which he had reserved the judgment which was finally pronounced on Thursday. Pathania said that under the provisions of anti-defection law, six petitions were received at the assembly secretariat against the six MLAs from the complainant (parliamentary affairs minister Harshvardhan Chauhan) and he decided the matter as the judge or member of the tribunal whose registrar is the assembly secretary.
He said that the six MLAs had contested assembly elections on Congress tickets and had attracted the provisions of anti-defection law after which a petition was filed. He said that his order is very elaborate, having around 30 pages. The speaker said that record was also perused during the course of hearing.
"I had to see whether they attracted the provisions of anti-defection law or not. I had to see this point. These members were present in the assembly and marked their attendance. When cut motions and demands were put to vote they were not inside the House," he said.
Pathania said that on Wednesday also when the Finance Bill was presented in the House and it was to be passed, the six MLAs were not inside the House. So, they had defied the whip and have attracted the provisions of the anti-defection law, he added.
"Consequently, I hold that respondents have incurred disqualification under para 2(1) (a) of the 10 Schedule and therefore I hold to declare that respondents no. 1 to 6 ceased to be the members of the Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly with immediate effects," the speaker said while reading the operating part of his judgment.
Voting by the above six disqualified Congress MLAs in Rajya Sabha election had caused humiliation to chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu as Congress despite despite having a clear majority of 40 MLAs in the House of 68 members, faced defeat in the Rajya Sabha election held for the one seat of State on Tuesday.
BJP that was having just 25 MLAs managed to clinch the victory with the help of 6 Congress and 3 independent MLAs. With the help of cross voting BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan managed to equal the score at 34 with his opponent Abhishek Manu Singhvi of Congress and final decision was later held through a draw of lots in which Harsh Mahajan was declared as winner.