The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday fielded the six rebel Congress MLAs, who supported its nominee for the Rajya Sabha poll and plunged the CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government into a crisis, for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh bypolls. The six disqualified legislators joined the BJP on Saturday.

In an official statement, the BJP announced their candidacy for the seats they held before their disqualification. Sudhir Sharma was nominated from Dharamshala, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul and Spiti, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Chetanya Sharma from Gagret and Devinder Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehar.

“Express my gratitude to the BJP’s top leadership for declaring me as the candidate from Dharamshala. This election will be an election of development and trust,” Sharma said in a post on X.

On February 27, the six former Congress MLAs cross-voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the RS poll, leading to a tie and the eventual victory of the latter by a dramatic lottery. They were disqualified by speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29 for defying the Congress whip during vote on a finance bill.

Their disqualification brought the effective strength of the assembly down from 68 to 62 and the majority mark to 32 – below the Congress’s effective strength of 34. The BJP has 25 MLAs in the state. The bypolls for the six seats held by the rebel leaders are slated to be held on June 1.

Sukhu hit out at the BJP after it fielded the six leaders. “This has proven that they have done horse-trading in Himachal Pradesh. They tried to destabilise the government here with money power but they could not do it,” he said.

Disquiet in BJP

The announcement of former Congress leaders’ candidature for bypolls created rumblings in the BJP.

Former state minister Ram Lal Markanda said that he is quitting the party, adding: “I will contest the assembly bypolls for sure. There is a possibility of my contesting from the Congress. ”

Another former state minister, Virender Kanwar, said the people of Kutlehar were upset with the BJP for nominating Bhutto in his place.

“The party is above everything, but the people of my constituency are disappointed and want that the decision of the party be reviewed,” he said.