Shimla: Rebel Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Rajinder Rana Saturday claimed that nine more party legislators “feeling suffocated” due to Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s style of functioning are in touch with him as he called the Chief Minister “liar number one”.
Rana along with five other Congress MLAs, who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls, have been disqualified from the Assembly for abstaining from voting on the cut motion and finance bill.
Meanwhile, high drama was witnessed during the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet meeting Saturday as ministers Jagat Negi and Rohit Thakur left midway following a “heated debate” over policy decisions, sources said.
Rana termed Sukhu “liar number one” and alleged that he was trying to twist the facts.”Neither Public Works Department Minister Vikramaditya Singh had told the Chief Minister that he is meeting the Congress rebels at Panchkula nor the CM had sent him,” Rana said.
“Vikramaditya Singh, who met us on his way to Delhi, did not ask us to patch up. He has his grievances against the government which failed to provide land for installing Virbhadra Singh’s statue and interfered in his functioning,” he added.
Sukhu Friday said he gave the go-ahead to Vikramaditya Singh to meet the rebels who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls, in what appeared to be a placatory gesture even as he called the same six MLAs “black serpents”.
In a setback for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP Tuesday won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat despite being in the minority with just 25 MLAs against 40 of the Congress as nine MLAs, including six from the Congress and three independents, voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs namely Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto for abstaining from voting on the Cut Motion and the Finance Bill.
After cross-voting by the rebels in the Rajya Sabha polls, Vikramaditya had announced his resignation from the Cabinet Wednesday but softened his stand by the evening after meeting the observers, who said that the resignation had been withdrawn.
“More MLAs are coming and the Congress government is going,” as Congress MLAs are feeling suffocated by the dictatorial style of functioning of Chief Minister Sukhu, who has put Himachal on the back gear, said Rana, who had changed the political scenario in the state by defeating former CM P K Dhumal in 2017 assembly polls. Friends of the CM are allegedly running the government and the elected representatives especially, the ministers are “suffocated and humiliated”, Rana said.
PTI