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Chaos prevailed in the Himachal Pradesh assembly after Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania suspended 15 MLAs, including leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur, from the House for disrupting proceedings and creating ruckus.
Despite repeated instructions from the Speaker to adhere to the rules and leave the House, the BJP MLAs continued their demonstration, prompting him to adjourn the proceedings until 12 noon. However, the chaos escalated as the expelled MLAs resorted to disruptive behaviour, scattering papers and raising slogans, causing further disruption.
The Speaker’s efforts to restore order were met with defiance, as the expelled MLAs remained steadfast in their protest, targeting both the Speaker and the government.
Apart from Thakur, the suspended MLAs are Vipin Parmar, Vinod Kumar, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Balbir Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Deep Raj, Surinder Shouri, Puran Thakur, Inder Singh Gandhi, Dilip Thakur, Randhir Sharma, Lokender Kumar, and Ranvir Singh.
Some of the suspended MLAs staged a sit-in and marshals were called to evict them even as some of them complained of health issues.
“We are apprehensive that Speaker Pathania might suspend the BJP MLAs so that the budget can be passed in the Vidhan Sabha,” Thakur told reporters earlier in the morning. He said the Rajya Sabha election had made it clear that the Congress government was in the minority and demanded the resignation of chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
“The government is in minority. Dictatorship is taking place. The government cannot get the budget passed on division of votes, hence 15 BJP MLAs have been suspended in this manner. This has never happened before in the history of Himachal,” the BJP said in a press statement.
The BJP legislators were suspended by the Speaker after state parliamentary affairs minister Harshwardhan Chauhan moved a proposal recommending the expulsion of the MLAs from the House.
The BJP is pressing for division voting on the passing of the Budget after it is introduced in the assembly. If Congress is unable to see the Budget through the government in the state will fall.
The Congress has 40 MLAs while the BJP has 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents.
The move comes a day after the BJP on Tuesday won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat with its candidate Harsh Mahajan defeating Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi due to cross-voting by MLAs of the ruling Congress party.
Meanwhile, the six Congress MLAs and three independent legislators, who voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, reached the assembly on Wednesday.
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