Simultaneous Lok Sabha poll, bypolls in Himachal on June 1
With byelections for the six constituencies that fell vacant after six rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly to be held simultaneously with the parliamentary elections on June 1, the ruling Congress government in the State will be facing a critical test.
Six Congress MLAs disqualified from the State Assembly last month after crossvoting in favour of BJP have approached the Supreme Court
Absence from House
Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg on Saturday said that the Assembly byelections for Dharamshala, Sujanpur, LahaulSpiti, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar constituencies will be held on June 1.
Six Congress legislators were disqualified from the Assembly last month after crossvoting in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27.
The rebel Congress MLAs have approached the Supreme Court against their disqualification.
The ground for their disqualification was their absence from the Assembly when the State budget and the finance Bill were being put to the vote, defying a party whip to vote in favour of the government.
In the 68member Assembly, the majority figure is 35.
The ruling Congress had 40 MLAs, but with the disqualification of six MLAs, its strength has fallen to 34.
Though the total House strength has also dropped to 62 with the disqualifications and the majority figure stands at 32, the threat to the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government’s continuance remains.
For majority
While the BJP has 25 MLAs and three are Independent MLAs, the Congress needs to ensure that it wins at least one seat in the byelections to retain majority in the Assembly.
The four Lok Sabha seats that would go for polling on June 1 are Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, and Shimla.
The BJP swept all four parliamentary seats in 2019 but suffered a setback in 2021 when the party candidate lost the byelection in Mandi, necessitated by its MP Ram Swaroop’s demise, to the Congress.