Notices issued against 9 BJP MLAs in Himachal for ‘unruly behaviour’ during Assembly session

Speaking to The Indian Express, Yashpal Sharma said, “The notices were issued against nine BJP MLAs on March 13. They were instructed to file their replies in person on March 18.”

Ajay Solanki, Congress MLA from Nahan, said, “I was told yesterday that notices were issued to nine BJP MLAs following my complaint.” As per Solanki’s complaint, the nine BJP MLAs created a ruckus inside the House and the chamber of the Vidhan Sabha on February 28, the day the budget was passed.

BJP MLA Lokender Kumar, who is among nine MLAs issued notices, said, “I received the notice via email. Our party high command will decide what to do with the notice.” Another BJP MLA Vinod Kumar maintained that he is yet to receive the notice.

Interestingly, on February 29, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified six rebel Congress MLAs for violating the party whip issued during the budget session. The disqualified MLAs include Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal and Devinder Kumar Bhutto. These MLAs had cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha MP elections in favour of the BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, resulting in the defeat of the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Days ago, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur had claimed that the state government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu would harm the BJP MLAs. On March 4, Thakur told media persons, “In an attempt to save the weak Congress government, a privilege committee was constituted. This committee was constituted to harm the BJP MLAs. Earlier, the Vidhan Sabha speaker disqualified six MLAs who had cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha election. Later, the Vidhan Sabha suspended the BJP’s 15 MLAs and now the government, through the privilege committee, wants to harm other BJP MLAs.”