New Delhi. Amidst the ongoing turmoil in the politics of Himachal Pradesh since the Rajya Sabha elections, BJP has now played a big bet. BJP has made all the 6 rebel MLAs of Congress its candidates for the by-elections to be held in the state. Let us tell you that these 6 rebel Congress MLAs had joined BJP after being disqualified from the Assembly. Along with these, three independent MLAs had also taken membership of BJP. All these MLAs had voted in favor of the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha elections, due to which Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhki was defeated. After this, Congress had appealed to cancel the assembly membership of its 6 rebel MLAs, which was accepted by the Speaker.
BJP has made Sudhir Sharma, a 4-time MLA from Dharamshala Assembly, its candidate. BJP has given ticket to Rajendra Rana, who has been MLA from Sujanpur for three times. Ravi Thakur, two-time MLA from Lahaul Spiti, Indradutt Lakhanpal, three-time MLA from Badsar, Devendra Kumar Bhutto from Kutlahar and Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret have been given BJP tickets.
Apart from this, BJP has also released the list of candidates for the by-elections to be held in Gujarat, Karnataka, Sikkim and West Bengal.
It is noteworthy that in Himachal Pradesh, voting for four Lok Sabha seats will be held in the last and seventh phase on June 1. By-elections will also be held in six assembly constituencies on the same day. These six assembly constituencies are the same from where Congress has disqualified six rebel MLAs. The results will be declared on June 4. Election notification will be issued in the state on May 7. The last date for filing nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections has been fixed as May 14. The sorting of nomination papers will take place on May 15. Names can be withdrawn on May 17.