Himachal assembly bypolls: Setback for three Independents as nomination process commences

With the Election Commission on Tuesday issuing notification for nominations for elections to the four Lok Sabha and six assembly segments where bypolls are scheduled, the three Independent legislators who resigned from the Vidhan Sabha suffered a setback as they were hopeful of elections for the seats to be held simultaneously.

The three Independents — Hoshiyar Singh from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and KL Thakur from Nalagarh — had voted in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Rajya Sabha candidate Harsh Mahajan along with six rebel Congress MLAs back in February.

Mahajan and his rival Abhishekh Manu Singhvi polled 34 votes each in the 68-member Vidhan Sabha. Consequently, the results were drawn through a draw of lot and Mahajan was declared the winner.

The six Congress MLAs were later disqualified under the anti-defection law over them defying a party whip when the state budget and the Finance Bill were being put to vote.

The Independent MLAs, who were prior to the Rajya Sabha elections, supporting the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government in the state, later in March submitted their resignation to the Vidhan Sabha secretariat and later met governor Shiv Pratap Shukla and speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. On March 23, all three joined the BJP. It was being speculated that bypolls will be held in all nine seats vacated by the Congress rebels as well as the Independents simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. However, this could not happen since the decision over the resignation of the Independents still remains pending with the speaker.

Congress MLAs had complained that the three resigned under duress, while the three approached the Himachal Pradesh high court challenging the speaker’s constitutional authority. The MLAs told the court that they had resigned of their own free will and without any pressure, arguing that their resignation should be accepted.

Revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi, meanwhile, moved another application before the speaker to disqualify the three under anti-defection law. In the petition, Negi said the independent MLAs had joined the BJP even before the resignations were accepted and therefore, action should be taken against them under the anti-defection law. The petition is also under consideration with the speaker.

The HC’s division bench comprising chief justice MS Ramachandra Rao and justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua has reserved the judgement.

Now, with the election commission issuing notification for the elections, it has become clear that the bypolls to three constituencies represented by the independents — Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh — will not be held simultaneously with six other assembly constituencies and four Lok Sabha seats.

In case the speaker accepts their resignation, the election date will be announced later.