AMN / SHIMLA
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania today disqualified six Congress MLAs, who cross-voted in recently held Rajya Sabha elections.
They have been found guilty of violating the party whip during the budget session. Chief Whip and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan had complained about the conduct of these MLAs to the Speaker and the Speaker had reserved his decision yesterday after listening to both sides.
The MLAs declared disqualified are Rajendra Rana from Sujanpur, Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, Devendra Bhutto from Kutlaihar, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Badsar, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul-Spiti and Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret. It is noteworthy that during the Rajya Sabha elections, all these Congress MLAs did not vote for the party candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, due to which Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha elections.