- Himachal Pradesh Assembly passes budget by voice vote, no BJP member present. House adjourned sine die
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Wednesday suspended 15 BJP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, and adjourned the House.
They were suspended for misbehaviour and shouting slogans in the House.
Earlier in the day, Thakur had met the Governor and expressed apprehension that the Speaker would suspend BJP MLAs to prevent a division of votes and facilitate the passage of the Budget.
The 15 BJP MLAs who have been expelled from the Assembly are: Jai Ram Thakur, Vipin Singh Parmar, Randhir Sharma, Lokendra Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Hans RajJanak Raj, Balbeer Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Surendra Shori, Deep Raj, Puran Chand, Indra Singh Gandhi, Dilip Thakur, Ranbir Singh.
The move comes a day after the BJP on Tuesday won the state's lone Rajya Sabha seat with its candidate Harsh Mahajan defeating Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi due to cross-voting by MLAs of the state's ruling Congress party.
On Wednesday, BJP's Harsh Mahajan said, "Congress has been dismantled from here. All the attempts they make now will fail. BJP will form the government here."
Speaking about the suspension of 15 BJP MLAs, Mahajan said, "Congress government is toppling. So such attempts are being made -- to suspend them. These are delay tactics and are followed in every Vidhan Sabha."
He claimed that he has the support of the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted and the three Independents.
Just how deep the political management crisis has become in the Congress was on Tuesday vividly manifested in party-ruled Himachal Pradesh when Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha election despite a 43-25 arithmetical supremacy over the BJP.
Tuesday's developments could also be a precursor to another "Operation Kamal" many in the party fear.
