Himachal Pradesh: DK Shivakumar lights Congress fightback against BJP with saffron playbook

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, March 1: The bid of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to wrest power in Himachal Pradesh now rests in peace. Karnataka deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar led the Congress counter offensive to buy peace within the party.

Kuldeep Singh Pathania, the Himchal Pradesh Assembly Speaker, disqualified six MLAs from the Congress ranks. Chetanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhuttoo, Sudhir Sharma, and Rajinder Rana have been disqualified by the Assembly Speaker as members of the House.

With the disqualification of the six MLAs, the BJP bid to ride piggyback the disgruntled legislators in the ranks of the Congress has now faced a setback. The effective strength of the Assembly also now stands reduced to 62 while the Congress still has 34 MLAs with support of three independents. The BJP has 25 MLAs in the hilly state.

Holding a specialization in blunting the BJP, Shivakumar was specially flown to Shimla from Bengaluru by the Congress. He had seen the BJP’s first experiment with ‘Operation Lotus’ in Karnataka after the saffron outfit had wrested power in 2018 despite losing the elections. The Shivakumar-led Congress in Karnataka now got cross-voting from the BJP MLAs in the recently held biennial elections for the Rajya Sabha.

The Karnataka deputy chief minister appears to have lifted the BJP playbook of getting the Opposition members evicted from both Houses of parliament to unleash the dread among the restive Congress legislators in Himachal Pradesh. While the party whip is not applicable in the elections for the Rajya Sabha candidates, the Assembly Speaker still disqualified the six rebel MLAs. They will now approach the Supreme Court.

While the Supreme Court may take time to dispose off the matter, the Congress has instilled fear among the rebel MLAs that they could be served with immediate punitive measures, including loss of perks as members of the Assembly. Also, the precedents show that the apex court verdict on matters involving the decisions of the Assembly Speakers does not come too quickly.

The restive state minister, Vikramaditya Singh, who is son of former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh, has also taken back his resignation. His mother Pratibha Singh, the state president of the Congress, has expressed hope that the coordination committee constituted by the party in the aftermath of the internal crisis will address issues concerning the MLAs.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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