Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], June 3 (ANI): Former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and leader of the opposition in the state, Jairam Thakur hit out at Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, saying he kept the resignation of three independent MLAs pending and accepted them with delay to save the Congress government in the state.
https://x.com/jairamthakurbjp/status/1797646301703905549
In a post in Hindi on X, he said, “The Speaker of the Himachal Assembly has worked to save the Congress government from a political point of view. Not only this, he has also made wrong comments against the MLAs who joined BJP. I think that under pressure from the Congress government and party, he has kept the resignations of three independent MLAs pending and accepted them with delay. But his statement towards the MLAs and his behaviour is very unfortunate, all this will be remembered in history”.
In a statement, the BJP leader said, “The whole matter was deliberately kept pending. Due to this, the three independent MLAs could not participate in this general Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly by-elections. A lot of time and resources could have been saved.”
“The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is sitting on a constitutional post but he is working against his dignity and is working as a puppet of the government. He should answer why he is acting against the dignity of the post in this manner,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania accepted the resignation of the three independent legislators.
Speaker Pathania told ANI that all other cases and petitions in the matter will remain infrutious.
“They gave their resignations on March 22, 2024. I have accepted those. Now they seize to be the members of the 14th Assembly. That will be notified and published in the gazette and the information will be sent to the Election Commission of India. The matter under anti-defection law on the petition of parallel proceedings on the petition of Jagat Singh is listed but the result of both would be the same if I accept their resignation or take action under violation of anti-defection Law,” Pathania said.
“I have not taken any harsh decisions and have decided to accept their resignations as per their wish. The Chief Justice of the high court had said that they couldn’t interfere in the jurisdiction of the speaker and another judge had the opinion that the court can’t intervene but can restrict time so there was a difference of opinion and the matter was referred to the third judge. The acceptance of non-acceptance of the resignation is my domain and I have accepted it. And the other matters in this would remain infrutious,” Pathania added.
The former independent MLA and BJP leader KL Thakur said, “They wanted the speaker to accept their resignations immediately”.”We wanted them to have accepted it either on March 22 or 23 but they did it today. It is the prerogative of the speaker. We did not want any burden on the state, so we wanted no additional burden of model code of conduct on the people. It doesn’t fall under anti-defection law as we had resigned on March 22 and joined the BJP on the next day,” Thakur said.
Three independent MLAs Hoshiyar Singh from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and KL Thakur from Nalagarh assembly constituency had submitted their resignations to the speaker on March 22,2024.
Earlier three Independent MLAs moved Himachal Pradesh High Court challenging the HP Assembly speaker for not accepting their resignations. (ANI)
, https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/himachal-speaker-delayed-accepting-resignations-of-independent-mlas-to-save-congress-govt-bjps-jairam-thakur20240603222937
