The Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Kuldeep Singh Pathania, has issued notices to three Independent MLAs, Hoshiyar Singh, K.L. Thakur, and Ashish Sharma, asking them to declare their support.
These three Independent MLAs may find themselves caught in their own trap. They are the same three MLAs who defeated candidates from both national parties, BJP and Congress, in the previous assembly elections and supported the Congress government.
However, in the Rajya Sabha elections, they ensured the victory of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan by not voting for the Congress candidate and instead siding with rebel Congress MLAs. Subsequently, these three MLAs resigned from the assembly, but the Speaker did not accept it, so they went to the High Court and filed a petition against the Speaker.
The matter related to the resignation is pending in the High Court. Now, a complaint has been received under the anti-defection law against these three ministers by Revenue and Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi.
It is worth noting that these three Independent MLAs had resigned from their membership by submitting their resignations and accepted BJP membership.
The complainant has demanded action against these three Independent MLAs under the anti-defection law, alleging it to be incorrect and illegal.
The Speaker has taken cognizance of Jagat Singh Negi's complaint and demanded a response from the Independent MLAs.
It is also worth noting that Independent MLAs cannot accept the membership of any party.
It will be interesting to see whether the resignations of these Independent MLAs are accepted or action is taken against them under the anti-defection law.
From the events so far, it is certain that there will be no by-elections in the constituencies of Dehra, Nalagarh, and Hamirpur along with the Lok Sabha elections.
These three MLAs will remain in a dilemma. Looking at the situation of these three, it can be said, "See, how time plays, the lion trapped in the spider's web."
That's all for today.
