Harsh Mahajan, the BJP leader who won the Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, claimed that his party is going to form government in the state by ousting the ruling Congress as it ‘lacks majority’ in the house.Mahajan said several Congress MLAs are in touch with the BJP and the state is going to witness a change in the government.
“The BJP is going to form government in the state. Some more MLAs of Congress are in touch with us. I got phone calls from some of their MLAs and ministers…The situation will change in the next few hours and you will see the BJP form its government soon…For the next 10-20 years, the Congress is not going to come to power here,” Mahajan said.
He said the Congress is “not going to last too long” in Himachal. “The BJP is the game-changer. People are upset with the Sukhu government. All good leaders are joining the BJP. It is a future party…There has been cross-voting. The Congress has lost majority in the state. This government is not going to last long,” he said.
However, amid a political crisis in Himachal Pradesh after the defeat of the Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Wednesday asserted that they will run the government for five years.“Neither the high command has asked me nor anyone else for resignation and there is no such thing,” he asserted.
He said, “The kind of work done by the state BJP leaders. They did not trust their own people. CRPF was deployed. Haryana police was deployed. A helicopter was used.”
In a stunning upset for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP on Tuesday won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat with its candidate Harsh Mahajan defeating Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi and apparently setting the stage for a no-trust motion in the assembly.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Wednesday reserved his order on a Congress petition seeking disqualification of six party MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election.The six MLAs also face the possibility of disqualification on another count.
Speaking in the Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said a whip was issued to the party MLAs to be present in the House during voting Wednesday on budget. But these MLAs defied it by staying away, he added.
The minister asked the Speaker to take note of it. The Speaker said the matter is in his knowledge and he will take cognisance of it.
