Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania today disqualified six Congress MLAs, who supported the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania today disqualified six Congress MLAs, who cross-voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections. The speaker had expelled 15 BJP MLAs over sloganeering and alleged misconduct on Wednesday, ahead of the start of the budget session.

The disqualified Congress MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma.

The Congress has barely managed to save the state government after it was plunged into a crisis following cross-voting by party MLAs and the now-withdrawn resignation of Virbhadra Singh”s son Vikramaditya, a minister in Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu”s cabinet.

The petition was filed by Congress MLA and parliamentary affairs Minister Harsh Wardhan Chauhan under anti-defection law for the disqualification of the six.

The actions of the six MLAs violated the anti-defection law, the Speaker said, adding that they defied the party whip to vote in favour of the government on the Finance Bill in the house yesterday. The assembly passed the state Budget after the Speaker suspended 15 BJP MLAs.

“When a speaker acts under the 10th schedule then he does not enjoy the power and privileges of the speaker but his position is as a tribunal, here I am in the shape of a tribunal judge…This pronouncement is in reference to those observations made by the Supreme Court and High Courts in various judgments,” Pathania told reporters.