Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], February 29 (HBTV): Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania has on Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs who cross voted in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Pathania said the six MLAs who contested on the Congress party’s symbol have attracted the provisions of the anti-defection law against themselves.    

‘I declare that the six people cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect,’ the speaker said.  

The six MLAs who have been disqualified are Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal.  

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

After the 2022 assembly elections, the Congress had 40 MLAs, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had 25 in the 68-member state assembly. Independents hold three seats.  

With the six rebel MLAs now disqualified, the strength of the house comes down from 68 to 62. The halfway mark is 32. With the loss of six MLAs, the Congress now has 34 MLAs. The BJP and the independents are now 28 seats in total. The fortunes of the Congress will now rest on its ability to keep the rest of its flock together.  

The BJP claimed that the Congress had lost the moral authority to be in power after losing majority in the state’s assembly.   

(ANI)  This is a syndicated news feed. HBTV has edited it for brevity and clarity.