Six newly elected Himachal MLAs take oath

Shimla, June 12
The newly elected six legislators, who won the bye-elections, took oath as members of the Legislative Assembly here on Wednesday.

They were Anuradha Rana, Rakesh Kalia, Ranjit Rana and Vivek Sharma of the Congress, and Sudhir Sharma and I.D. Lakhanpal of the BJP.

With the four belonging to the ruling Congress, the strength of legislators of the party increased to 38 from 34 in the 68-member that is currently reduced to 65 members after the resignations of three independent MLAs.

The BJP’s numbers have gone up to 27 after the victory in the bypolls.

Later interacting with the media, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu said the claim of the BJP to form government in the state has failed as people have elected four Congress candidates in the bypolls. The party has consolidated its position in the Vidhan Sabha.

He said the government would continue its endeavour to make Himachal Pradesh a self-reliant state and the government has been taking various decisions in this regard.

He said the people of the state have rejected the politics of horse trading as four turncoat MLAs had faced defeat in the bye-elections.

Responding to a question, the Chief Minister said the Congress is fully prepared for the upcoming three Assembly bye-elections for which the candidates would be finalised shortly.

The Election Commission on Monday announced bypolls to three Assembly constituencies on July 10. The bypolls were necessitated due to the resignation of the incumbent members, all Independents.

The vacant Assembly seats are Hamirpur, Dehra and Nalagarh.