Speaker of the Lok Sabha in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Monday administered oath to three newly elected legislators, including Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukh.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the Parliament Building, attended by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and Cabinet members.
Those who took oath included Kamlesh Thakur MP from Dera constituency, Hardeep Singh Bawa MP from Nalagarh constituency and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur constituency.
With the induction of the three state MPs, the Lok Sabha will be completed with 68 members, increasing the Congress’ strength to 40 and the BJP will have 28 members in the Legislative Assembly.
For the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh, there will be no independent member of the state legislature in the Vidhan Sabha. It will also be the first time that a married couple, Chief Minister Sukhu and his wife Kamlesh Thakur, will be members of the same Assembly.
By-elections to the three seats — Dera, Nalagarh and Hamirpur — were held on July 10 following the acceptance of the resignations of three independent legislators — Hoshiar Singh, K.L. Thakur and Ashish Sharma.
In the Rajya Sabha elections held on February 27, three independents and six Congress rebels voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.
On March 22, the three independents submitted their resignations and joined the BJP the next day.
However, their resignations were accepted by the Speaker on June 3. Though the three independents were nominated by the BJP from their respective seats, only Ashish Sharma retained his seat while the other two lost to their Congress rivals in the by-elections.
Speaking to local media persons, Sukhu accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to destabilise the government through the deal.
Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur responded by accusing the Congress government of misusing official mechanisms to win the by-elections.
Sukhu hopes that the BJP will now shun negative politics and work with the government in pursuing development projects.
“The people of the state have rejected the politics of toppling an elected government through the power of money and have shown the BJP a mirror up,” the Chief Minister said.
The BJP forced by-elections and created political chaos as a result of which the government was unable to implement development plans after passing the budget with the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, he added.
Reiterating his government’s resolve to make the state self-reliant, Sukhu said the BJP government was forced to take out loans to pay interest and instalments on loans taken by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government of Jai Ram Thakur.
He claimed that due to prudent government policies, the state’s financial position had improved by 20 per cent.
“The BJP won the Rajya Sabha seat, the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and three of the nine Assembly seats, increasing its tally in the Vidhan Sabha to 28,” Thakur said.
“We accept the people’s verdict but the outcome would have been different if the three by-elections held due to the resignations of pro-independence MPs had been held at the same time as the six by-elections and the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Earlier, six seats in the assembly fell vacant after a Congress rebel was disqualified for voting in favour of the budget in defiance of the assembly leader during the budget debate.
These MPs had also voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections.
Accusing the government of not fulfilling its election promises, Thakur said instead of giving 300 units of free electricity, the Congress party had taken away 125 units of free electricity which a large section of the society was already enjoying.
He said the BJP was aware of its financial situation but made false promises to win the 2022 state assembly elections.
After taking oath, first-time state assembly member Kamlesh Thakur interacted with media persons and expressed his gratitude to the Dera residents.
Meanwhile, Bawa, five-time president of Himachal chapter of the Indian National Trade Union Congress and a first-time member of the state assembly, said Nalagarh shares a border with Punjab and law and order is a major issue. He hopes the government will take effective steps in this regard.
BJP MP Ashish Sharma, who has served as a member of the state assembly two times, said the people had given a befitting rebuttal to the chief minister’s malicious propaganda during the elections, adding that no development had been seen in Hamirpur for the last 128 months, forcing the chief minister to resign.
“Now I will be forcefully raising the issues of my constituency in the House of Representatives,” he said.
This article has been generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
