BJP's greed for power, orchestration of members' rebellion stands exposed: Himachal Congress

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Congress on Sunday accused the BJP of conspiring to topple its government in the state out of greed for power by instigating its members.

The party's remarks came in the wake of nine MLAs - six Congress rebels and three independents -, who had voted in favour of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27, joining the BJP in Delhi on Friday.

"The strategy, face, and character of the BJP has been exposed in front of the public as Congress rebels joining BJP have made it clear that the BJP was behind the whole conspiracy," Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil and Industries Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan said in a joint statement here.

The leaders said the six, who were already stripped of their assembly membership, hatched a conspiracy with the BJP to topple the democratically elected government.

The three independents were Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh, and K L Thakur from Hamirpur, Dehra, and Nalagarh assembly seats.

The six former Congress MLAs — Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret), and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) – were disqualified by the speaker for defying a whip to be present in the house and vote in favour of the government during the cut motions and passing of the financial bill (budget).

The ministers said the leaders who won the election on Congress's symbol and honoured with various posts are now raising fingers at the party.

"The truth is that all these rebels have left the Congress party due to personal interests and it has nothing to do with the interest of the people of the state," they said.

With the disqualification of six Congress MLAs, the strength of the ruling Congress came down from 40 to 34, including the Speaker who can vote only in the case of a tie during a floor test, in the 68-member Assembly. The BJP has 25 members.