) In a major political development in the ongoing crisis in Himachal Pradesh, state assembly Speaker on Wednesday suspended 15 BJP legislators, including Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur.
The development comes minutes after Congress minister Vikramaditya Singh announced his resignation from the Cabinet, saying there were attempts to suppress the voice of MLAs, and that has led to this situation for the government.
Vikramaditya is the son of Congress stalwart and six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh.
In a stunning upset a day earlier, six Congress MLAs cross-voted in the lone Rajya Sabha seat. Those who voted in favour of the BJP’s candidate were Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala) and Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), both ministerial aspirants; Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Badsar); Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti); Chaitnaya Sharma (Gagret); and Devender Bhutto (Kutlehar). The three Independent MLAs too voted in favour of the BJP.
With this, the Congress has a strength of 34 MLAs, the same number as the BJP.