The Congress party seems to have successfully exacted revenge on the six Himachal MLAs who cross-voted and helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate , Harsh Mahajan , win the Rajya Sabha elections held recently. Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, who disqualified the rebel MLAs, has left them with the option of appealing in courts or contesting by-polls. Additionally, with party leader Vikramaditya Singh – son of the late Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh – changing his mind after discussions and deciding not to resign for now, it looks like the Congress high command with its damage control measures has managed to ensure that the government survives for the time being and doubts about its continuity subside.
another section wanted strict action to set a precedent While a section within the Congress preferred a conciliatory approach towards these six MLAs for the sake of saving the government. For the continuity of the government and its smooth operation, the Congress now needs to ensure that there is no further rebellion. In court, the six MLAs can argue against the disqualification order with various reasons – they didn’t get sufficient time to reply, the Speaker acted under pressure from the Congress, they were not able to make it to the House in time for voting on the Budget Day as they had some other pressing issues, they are not bound by whip in the Rajya Sabha polls, et cetera, et cetera. The courts may or may not intervene immediately. It’s also not clear whether the MLAs have been disqualified for the remainder of the assembly’s term and whether they are barred from contesting by-polls. The Tenth Schedule has a big lacuna, wherein there is no difference between disqualification and resignation. Under both cases, the MLA concerned can contest by-elections.
With these disqualifications, the strength of the House has been reduced to 62. Of them, the Congress has the support of 34 MLAs, including the Speaker. The simple majority mark now has been reduced to 32, and the Congress has a wafer-thin majority. Along with three independents, the BJP enjoys the support of 28 MLAs. After all, it doesn’t have a big cushion to fall back on-it’s a strength of 34 against a simple majority of 32.
The Supreme Court, however, struck down the Speaker’s decision calling it unconstitutional, and declared the MLAs eligible to contest by-elections to the assembly. This was done so that they could not contest bypolls to seek re-election and enjoy the alleged rewards offered by the opposition BJP to lure them away from the Congress-JD(S) alliance. During the Karnataka crisis in 2019, the Speaker took a controversial decision of disqualifying 17 MLAs (of the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular) for the rest of the assembly’s term.
