Shimla, Jul 15 (PTI) The ‘Operation Lotus’ of the BJP has miserably failed in Himachal Pradesh and now the opposition party should play a constructive role, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on Monday.
Agnihotri also said six Congress legislators lost their membership of the state assembly due to a “conspiracy” of the BJP.
“The BJP must introspect now as the Congress which had won 40 seats in 2022 assembly polls has again attained the 40-seat mark after by-elections in nine assembly constituencies,” he told reporters here.
The hill state had plunged into a political crisis in February-March when nine MLAs, including six Congress legislators and three Independents, had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27.
Later, the six Congress rebels were disqualified for defying a whip to vote in favour of the Congress government during cut motions and budget while the three Independents themselves resigned from the House on March 22. All of them joined the BJP on March 23 and were given tickets by the saffron party from their respective seats.
By-elections to six of these nine vacant seats were held along with the Lok Sabha polls on June 1. After the Speaker accepted the resignation of the three Independents on June 3, the bypolls to the three remaining seats were held on July 10. Six out of these nine legislators lost in bypolls.
“The Operation Lotus (an attempt to topple the elected government) of the BJP had miserably failed in Himachal Pradesh and six sitting legislators lost their membership due to conspiracy of the BJP. Now, it is time that the opposition plays a constructive role,” Agnihotri said.
The Independent MLAs had no reason to resign and now they must explain what the compelling circumstances were that they quit their seats, the deputy CM said.
“During the Lok Sabha elections, the main priority of the Congress was to save the government and strengthen it, and we achieved that goal. The government is stable and would complete its term,” he added.
Two members of a fact-finding committee came here on Monday to analyze the reason behind the Congress’ defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, Agnihotri said, adding that “our priority was to ensure that the state government was stable”.
The Congress lost all four Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The deputy CM asked the Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur to learn a lesson and own the responsibility for creating a political instability in the state for nearly four months to become the chief minister. He also asked Thakur to apologise to the people of the state for this.
The people gave a clear mandate to the Congress in the 2022 state elections and asked the BJP to sit in the opposition but Thakur tried to become CM through backdoor by manipulations but suffered a major jolt, Agnihotri added. PTI BPL KVK KVK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.