3 Himachal Pradesh Independent MLAs lodge protest against Speaker over delay in acceptance of their resignations

Shimla, March 30

Accusing the Congress regime of murdering democracy, three Independent MLAs — Hoshyar Singh (Dehra), KL Thakur (Nalagarh) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) — who have resigned from the Assembly, sat on dharna outside the Vidhan Sabha on Saturday to press their demand for early acceptance of their resignation.

The three legislators arrived at the Vidhan Sabha and sat there holding placards. “We have resigned from the Assembly out of our own free will and without any pressure. We even handed over our resignation personally to the Speaker so it should be accepted at the earliest,” the placards read.

The MLAs said they will soon move court against the delay by the Speaker in accepting their resignation. They had submitted their resignation to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania on March 22.

They have been pressing for early acceptance of their resignation in the hope that the bypoll in their segments could be held simultaneously with the four Lok Sabha and six Assembly elections, due on June 1. 

“We had handed over our resignation on March 22 and joined BJP on March 23. Despite repeated requests the Speaker is not accepting our resignation,” said Dehra MLA Hoshyar Singh.

He added that a notice had been issued to them that there were complaints of them resigning under duress. He said Speaker is a constitutional post and issuing such notices amounts to murder of democracy.