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Journalism of Courage
At a time when the Congress has rushed senior leaders Bhupesh Baghel, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and D K Shivakumar to Himachal Pradesh amid a possibility of its government collapsing, should it fail to pass the Budget in the ongoing Session, the party said that only the people can take back the mandate given to them, not the BJP.
Addressing reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said party president Mallikarjun Kharge has despatched the three observers to Shimla and has spoken to them. He added that Kharge has asked the observers and AICC in-charge for the state Rajeev Shukla to speak to all MLAs, including those who are disgruntled, and submit a comprehensive report to him soon.
“We cannot lose the mandate given to us through BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’. Here, individual interests are not important as the party is supreme and the people’s mandate needs to be respected. The Congress will not hesitate to take tough steps as the party is our priority. We will not let the people’s mandate be betrayed in Himachal,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told reporters on Wednesday.
He added: “Accountability will be fixed for cross-voting in Rajya Sabha poll and our observers will be giving a detailed report on the happening the Congress president.”
Reacting to the developments, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, too, hit out at the BJP, saying: “In democracy, the general public has the right to choose the government of their choice. The people of Himachal used this right and formed the Congress government with a clear majority. But BJP wants to crush this right of the people of Himachal by misusing the money power, power of agencies and power of the Centre. The way BJP is using government security and machinery for this purpose is unprecedented in the history of the country.”
She added: “If a party with 25 MLAs is challenging the majority of 43 MLAs, then it clearly means that it is dependent on horse-trading of representatives. This attitude of theirs is unethical and unconstitutional. The people of Himachal and the country are watching everything. The BJP, which did not stand with the people of the state during the natural disaster, now wants to push the state into political disaster.”
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has also been confident in the face of the crisis, saying that his government continues to hold majority in the Assembly and shall prove it if a no-trust vote is called.
Earlier in the day, Congress MLA Vikramaditya Singh had resigned from the council of ministers, alleging that the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-government had “humiliated its own legislators several times”.
This comes a day after the BJP pulled off an upset by defeating the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha elections because of cross-voting by six of the party’s MLAs. While the BJP called on the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government to step down, saying it had “lost the mandate and trust”, the CM dismissed the claim.
The BJP’s Harsh Mahajan, a former Congress leader, won the election in a draw of slips after both he and Singhvi polled 34 votes each in the 68-member Assembly. Out of the two slips, the one that was drawn carried Singhvi’s name and as per the norms he was “excluded” and Mahajan was declared the winner. The Congress has 40 MLAs in the House compared to the BJP’s 25 and was counting on the support of three Independent MLAs.
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