New Delhi:
Six former Congress MLAs of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, who were disqualified for defying the party whip and cross-voting in the Union Assembly polls, today joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with three independent MLAs.
The switch from the Congress to the BJP was formalized at a ceremony attended by prominent figures from the BJP, including Union Minister Anurag Thakur, former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ra Thakur and state unit president Rajiv Bindar. While welcoming these former Congress MLAs to the BJP, Mr Thakur criticized the current Congress government in the state, accusing it of failing to fulfill its election promises.
The six disqualified Congress MLAs who switched allegiance to the BJP are Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana , Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto. They were elected on a parliamentary ticket but were disqualified on February 29 for refusing to comply with party instructions. Their actions included abstaining from voting in favor of the state government in a decisive motion in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, leading to their expulsion from the Assembly.
The three independent MLAs who have joined the BJP are Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and KL Thakur.
