Himachal Pradesh Congress Pratibha Singh on Friday lauded the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying it is working better than the grand old party. The Congress-led state government is facing a political crisis following the defection of six MLAs who are believed to be on contact with the BJP.
"A lot of things remain to be done in Congress. As an MP, I visit my constituency and try to interact with the local people and solve their problems. The BJP's working is indeed better than ours," the Himachal Pradesh Congress chief told ANI.
"From day 1, I had been telling the CM that we would be able to face the upcoming election only if he strengthens the organization. This is a very tough situation for us. We can see a lot of difficulties on the ground - as per the directions of PM Modi, BJP is going to do a lot of things," she said.
“We are on weak footing there. I urged him again and again that we need to strengthen and the party needs to be organized...I can say that it is a difficult time. Still, we have to contest elections and win," the state Congress chief added.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29 disqualified the six rebel Congress MLAs who cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha elections.
The six legislators who cross-voted, along with three independents, during Rajya Sabha polls have not been disqualified for cross-voting but for violating the whip and skipping the budget session.
The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar, Ravi Thakur, and Chetanya Sharma.
The Congress party had moved Himachal Pradesh Speaker seeking disqualification of the six rebel MLAs. The petition was filed by Congress MLA and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Wardhan Chauhan under anti-defection law.
These six MLAs, besides three independents, had cross-voted and helped BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan win a Rajya Sabha seat from the hill state on February 27. Later it also left the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government on the brink.
Congress is in power in Himachal Pradesh and had 40 MLAs, besides the support of three independent MLAs, in the 68-member house, before the Rajya Sabha polls. But despite the numbers, the Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha seat. The results were tied at 34 votes each.
The winner Harsh Mahajan was announced after a draw of lots compounding Congress woes in the hill state as Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's government looks at the possibility of a collapse of the Congress government.
(With ANI inputs)