Six rebel Himachal leaders withdraw plea from Supreme Court

On February 29, the Speaker disqualified the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls. The six MLAs who had been disqualified were Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal under the anti-defection law.

Six former Congress legislators withdrew their petition challenging the Himachal Assembly Speaker's decision from the Supreme Court on Friday. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta allowed the legislators to withdraw the plea.

On February 29, the Speaker disqualified the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls. The six MLAs who had been disqualified were Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal under the anti-defection law. Now these six MLAs are contesting the bypolls as BJP candidates.

After the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress had 40 MLAs, while the BJP had 25 in the 68-member Himachal assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents. These rebel legislators have cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls. In the voting of the Rajya Sabha election recently, the BJP, which has just 25 MLAs, managed to secure 9 additional votes.

The vote thus ended in a 34-34 tie, with three Independents and six Congress MLAs cross-voting for the BJP. Harsh Mahajan ended up winning after the result was decided with a draw of lots. (ANI)

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