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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the disqualification of six Congress leaders of Himachal Pradesh who had cross voted for the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha elections in the State and issuing notice to the respondents on their petition challenging the decision of the Legislative Assembly Speaker.
"We are not going to stay the disqualification," the apex court said. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta also denied the six MLAs permission to vote or participate in proceedings of the House. The top court listed the matter for the second week of May. The court was apprised of the fact that date of the general elections has been announced and that the date of filing of nomination has been notified for this May. On February 29, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified six Congress MLAs Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal under the anti-defection law. After the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress had 40 MLAs, while the BJP had 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents. In the voting of the Rajya Sabha election recently, the BJP, which has just 25 MLAs, managed to secure nine additional votes. The vote ended in a 34-34 tie, with three Independents and six Congress MLAs cross-voting for the BJP candidate. BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan won the contest defeating the Congress nominee Abhishek Singhvi after the result was decided with a draw of lots. (ANI)
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