New Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday made six recently disqualified former Congress MLAs its candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly by-elections, following which party leaders who were hoping to make candidates on these seats rebelled. Hours after BJP’s announcement, party leader Ramlal Markanda left the party and announced that he would ‘definitely’ contest the by-election. BJP leader Ranjit Singh also said that he will contest the elections as an independent.
Former minister Virendra Kanwar expressed dissatisfaction over the announcement of his party BJP. Kanwar was defeated last time by one of these former Congress MLAs. BJP has made these six former MLAs its candidates from the same seats from where they were Congress MLAs before being disqualified from the assembly.
In Himachal Pradesh, BJP has named Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Indradutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret) and Davinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) as its candidates. All of them had switched from Congress to BJP on March 23. About a month ago, he was disqualified from membership of the Assembly for disobeying the Congress whip.
Markanda on Tuesday resigned from the primary membership of the party in protest against fielding Congress rebel Ravi Thakur. In the last assembly elections, Thakur had defeated Markanda from Lahaul Spiti seat. The block unit of the party resigned against the party’s decision and expressed its determination to support Markanda.
Markanda said, “I will definitely contest the assembly by-elections. There is a possibility of me contesting elections from Congress.” Kanwar said that the people of his constituency are angry that BJP has made Congress rebel Devendra Kumar Bhutta the candidate from Kutlehar in his place.
Ranjit Singh said, “I will support the party candidate Union Minister Anurag Thakur in the Lok Sabha elections, while in the by-elections I will contest as an independent candidate.” Ranjit Singh had lost to Rajendra Rana in the last assembly elections.
Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu told media persons here that some BJP leaders including Rakesh Kalia of Markanda and Gagret are in touch with the Congress. He said, “The people of Himachal are bright and they believe in democracy. They will give a befitting reply to those who follow the Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram culture in Devbhoomi Himachal, especially those who sell themselves.”
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Tags: BJP, congress, himachal pradesh
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 26, 2024, 22:46 IST