Six newly elected MLAs take oath in Himachal

Shimla, June 12

The six newly elected legislators — Rakesh Kalia, Vivek Sharma, Ranjeet Rana, Anuradha Rana, Sudhir Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal — were administered the oath by Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania here today.

Of the six legislators, four from Gagret, Kutlehar, Sujanpur and Lahaul-Spiti belong to the Congress, thereby increasing the party’s strength in the Vidhan Sabha from 34 to 38. Two seats of Dharamsala and Barsar in Hamirpur were won by the BJP.

The number of women MLAs in the Assembly has gone up to two with the victory of Anuradha Rana, the newly elected MLA from Lahaul-Spiti. The lone woman MLA in the House till now was Reena Kashyap from the Pachhad.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu, Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, Deputy Speaker Vinay Kumar, ministers and MLAs were present on the occasion.

Later, while interacting with the media, Sukhu said the claim of the BJP to form government in the state had failed as people had elected four Congress candidates in the Assembly byelections. The Congress has consolidated its position in the Vidhan Sabha by raising number of its MLAs to 38.

Sukhu said his government would continue its endeavour to make Himachal self-reliant. “The people of the state have rejected the politics of horse-trading as four turncoat MLAs had faced defeat in the byelections,” said Sukhu. The Congress is ready for the upcoming Assembly byelections for which the candidates would be finalised shortly, he said.

Six Cong MLAs had cross-voted in Rajya Sabha elections

• With the four belonging to ruling Congress, the strength of MLAs of the party has risen to 38 in the 68-member Assembly whose strength has been reduced to 65 members after the resignations of 3 Independent MLAs
• Bypolls were necessitated after six Congress MLAs cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections against the party’s nominee. The Congress won four of the six seats while the BJP won two seats
• The Election Commission on Monday announced bypolls to three more Assembly constituencies on July 10 due to the resignation of the incumbent members, all Independents