Shimla: In a major blow to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, six rebel party MLAs from Himachal along with three other independent legislators joined the BJP in Delhi on Saturday, sources said.
The six rebel Congress MLAs-Rajendra Rana, Sudhir Sharma, ID Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Devendra Bhutto and Chaitanya Sharmaalong with the three independents Hoshiar Singh, KL Thakur and Ashish Sharma had recently cross voted in favour of the BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections held on Feb 27 leading to the shock defeat of Congress veteran Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
On Friday March 22, the three independent MLAs who resigned from the membership of the Assembly left for Delhi from Shimla besides Jairam Thakur and Rajeev Bindal.
The development is set to trigger a political turmoil in the hill state where the Congress is struggling to save face since the cross-voting in the RS polls leaving the ruling party red-faced.
The six rebel Congress MLAs have already been sacked from the state assembly which has necessitated by-elections.
Ahead of their joining the BJP, the six Congress rebel MLAs withdrew their petition filed in the Supreme Court against their sacking. It is noteworthy that after hearing this petition on March 18, the Supreme Court had sought reply from the Himachal Assembly Secretariat and fixed the next hearing on May 6.
