SHIMLA, March 5: Himachal Pradesh BJP chief P K Dhumal along with Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) president Sukh Ram today met Governor V S Ramadevi at the Raj Bhawan here and conveyed that their combination with the support of the only Independent legislator commanded a majority of 33 MLAs in the House.Both the BJP and Congress are vying for power in the State with each party formally staking its claim to form the government following a fractured electoral verdict for the 64-member state Assembly.The hung Assembly has 31 Congress, 28 BJP, four HVC and one independent MLA. Being the single largest party, the Congress had staked its claim yesterday to form the government.Dhumal, who was earlier unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party, and Sukh Ram were with the Governor for more than half an hour.BJP, which initially won 29 seats, had its tally reduced following the death of its winning candidate from the Pragpur consituency.Earlier in the morning, at a meeting of the BJPlegislature party, the State party's senior vice-president Kishori Lal proposed the name of Dhumal which was seconded by J P Nadda, leader of the BJP group in the dissolved Assembly.
