Will inform Assembly on Wednesday of decision on Cong plea to disqualify two MLAs, says Speaker

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Vipin Parmar on Monday said he would inform the House on Wednesday of the decision taken on a Congress plea to disqualify two independent MLAs who joined the BJP.

He said the two are still independent MLAs in the state assembly records.

The Congress has sought disqualification of the two independent MLAs under the anti-defection law.

Parmar told the media here that he would inform the House on the first day of the monsoon session on Wednesday about the decision that has been taken on the Congress representation of disqualifying the two MLAs.

He said he is minutely analysing whether the representation was a complaint or a petition and whether it was filed by a political party or any member of the Legislative Assembly.

Parmar said he had already sent a reply to those who had made the representation, regarding which he would inform the House on Wednesday.

The Himachal Pradesh Congress a few days ago had filed a 'petition' before the speaker seeking disqualification of Dehra MLA Hoshiyar Singh and Joginder Nagar MLA Prakash Rana who had joined the ruling BJP on June 8.

In its 'petition' filed through Rampur MLA and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) secretary Nand Lal, the party said the MLAs had joined the BJP in utter disregard of the Constitution.

This is in contravention to the anti-defection law, it had said.

Clause 2 sub-clause 2 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution prohibits an independent MLA from joining a particular political party after being elected, the Congress said.

It is our request that the two MLAs be declared disqualified from the membership of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, it had said.

The two independent legislators joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and state party president Suresh Kashyap at its office at Chakkar in Shimla.

The official website of the state assembly, however, still shows the two MLAs as independents. The website shows 43 BJP MLAs, 22 Congress MLAs, two independent MLAs and one CPI(M) MLA in the 68-member assembly.

During their joining, Thakur had said the independent legislators' joining would make the party and the government stronger.

Similarly, state BJP president Kashyap had said both Singh and Rana had been supporting the party in the assembly for long and they have now officially joined it.

The speaker further said standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Centre and the state governments in view of Covid and monkeypox would be followed during the four-day monsoon session to be held from August 10 to 13.

Wearing masks and adopting social distancing will be mandatory during the monsoon session, he added.

Thermal scanning will be done at the entrance of the gates of the Assembly and visitors to the half of sitting capacity in the visitor gallery will be allowed to watch the proceedings of the House, Parmar said.

An all-party meeting will be held on Tuesday for ensuring smooth conduct of the proceedings of the last session of the 13th Assembly, he added.

The state is scheduled to go to the polls in December this year.