After pulling off Himachal upset in Rajya Sabha election, BJP guns for Sukhu govt: ‘Will meet Governor in the morning’

High drama unfolded in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday as the BJP pulled off an upset by defeating the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha elections because of cross-voting by six of the party’s MLAs. While the BJP called on the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government to step down, saying it had “lost the mandate and trust”, the CM dismissed the claim.

The trouble for the government comes at a time when the Assembly’s annual Budget session is going on and ahead of voting on the state Finance Bill in the Assembly.

The BJP’s Harsh Mahajan, a former Congress leader, won the election in a draw of slips after both he and Singhvi polled 34 votes each in the 68-member Assembly. Out of the two slips, the one that was drawn carried Singhvi’s name and as per the norms he was “excluded” and Mahajan was declared the winner. The Congress has 40 MLAs in the House compared to the BJP’s 25 and was counting on the support of three Independent MLAs.

Congress MLAs Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Davinder Kumar Bhutto, and Ravi Thakur, and Independent legislators Ashish Sharma, K L Thakur, and Hoshyar Singh voted for Mahajan. Before the results were declared, they were allegedly escorted to Panchkula in Haryana. A video clip that appeared online purportedly showed the MLAs in about five cars outside a government guesthouse in Panchkula. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu alleged that “five to six Congress MLAs” had been “kidnapped” and taken away by a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Haryana Police.

Demanding that the Sukhu government resign, state BJP president Rajeev Bindal told reporters, “They have no right to remain in power. We will meet the Governor in the morning to