A week after they quit the Himachal Pradesh assembly, the three Independent MLAs, KL Thakur (Nalagarh), Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) held a protest outside the Vidhan Sabha in Shimla against Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania’s delay in accepting their resignations.

The three had quit on March 22 before joining the BJP but their resignations remain unaccepted. They accused Pathania of succumbing to pressure from the government and warned of legal action if their resignations were not accepted within the next two days.

They had submitted their resignation to Vidhan Sabha secretary Yashpaul Sharma and handed over a copy of it to Pathania before meeting governor Shiv Pratap Shukla.

The three Independent MLAs had backed BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections along with six, now disqualified, Congress legislators that led to the defeat of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Mahajan and Singhvi polled 34 votes each the result was decided from a draw of lots.

Despite repeated requests, they said, the Speaker had not accepted their resignation and had instead issued a notice, asking them to reply by April 10 if they were quitting under pressure or duress. “We resigned voluntarily. There was no pressure or any kind of allurement. It’s wrong to make such allegations. The Speaker is a constitutional post and if such a notice is issued then it’s akin to the murder of democracy,” Hoshiyar Singh said.

Sharma accused chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of disrespecting elected representatives. “We were not given an appointment for 14 months. Despite announcements, not a single one was fulfilled. The Congress government did not have money to meet the demand of even ₹1 lakh for our constituencies,” he said.

Sharma said the state government ensured funds for Congress MLAs, but ignored independent legislators. “Due to the humiliation, we decided to resign.”