SHIMLA: In a setback to the Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government, the High Court has directed the legislative Assembly to release pension and arrears of two former disqualified Congress MLAs -- Rajinder Rana and Ravi Thakur -- who later joined the BJP.
Rana and Thakur, elected from Sujanpur and Lahaul-Spiti, respectively, were disqualified for violating the party whip during the voting for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in February 2024, in which Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost to BJP’s Harsh Mahajan. They re-contested from their respective Assembly seats as BJP candidates but faced defeat.
Both Rajya Sabha candidates -- Mahajan and Singhvi -- secured 34 votes each in the 68-member House that comprised three Independent legislators who were believed to have voted in favour of the BJP. Mahajan was eventually declared the winner through a draw of lots. He had won the seat after six Congress MLAs cross-voted in the polls.
Later, the seats of six Congress legislators from Dharamsala, Lahaul-Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar fell vacant after the party disqualified its sitting MLAs. They were Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma.