He said the case to deport them was pending in the Supreme Court and the BJP respected the court.
Rishikesh:
Six Himachal Pradesh MPs and three independents who voted against party nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the BJP elections have moved to the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand state ’s hotel as the rebellion against Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sohu continues.
Two BJP MPs from Himachal Pradesh, Vikram Thakur and Trilok Jamwal, accompanied the legislators who arrived from the state on a chartered flight late on Friday Arrive in Rishikesh from Panchkula, Haryana and check into Taj Hotel.
Congress MPs Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhuttu, Ravindra Thakur and Chaitanya Sharma were disqualified for defying the party whip on the state budget issue.
They have approached the Supreme Court seeking relief.
Three independent MLAs Hoshiar Singh, KL Thakur and Ashish Sharma were also present when they arrived.
The Congress currently has 34 MLAs in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, while the BJP has 25. The three independent MLAs also supported the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
Security measures have been tightened around the hotel and no one is allowed to enter the hotel except guests who have booked online in advance.
The hotel is approximately 30 km from Rishikesh along the Rishikesh-Badrinath Road.
The Congress party has stepped up efforts to bring order in Himachal Pradesh and is holding talks with senior ministers from the state.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Northeastern Region Development BL Verma told reporters in Haridwar that the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh will fall soon.
“The Suhu government in Himachal Pradesh is struggling with internal strife. It will not last long due to this infighting,” Verma said.
He claimed that Rahul Gandhi’s actions have wiped out the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh and will wipe it out from all parts of the country after the Lok Sabha elections.
Verma was in Haridwar to attend the ‘Sahakarita Sammelan’ organized by yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth.
Replying to a question about the presence of Himachal Pradesh MLAs in Uttarakhand, Verma said a case to expel them is pending in the Supreme Court and the BJP respects the court.
He also termed the Samajwadi Party as a family-oriented organization that cannot open an account in the general elections.
He termed the ongoing farmers’ movement as politically motivated and claimed that the farmers’ budget for 2013-14 was only Rs 21,900 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi increased this figure to Rs 125 crore.
“But some political parties are trying to defame the government in the name of farmers. They will never succeed,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
