Sudhir Sharma.
New Delhi, March 6
The Congress on Wednesday removed Sudhir Sharma, one of the six party MLAs in Himachal Pradesh who cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls, from the post of its secretary.
In a release, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said party president Mallikarjun Kharge has removed Sharma from the post of secretary with immediate effect.
Sharma is a senior leader from Dharamshala and a former Himachal Pradesh minister. He was recently disqualified as an MLA for defying a party whip. Sudhir was first elected to Himachal Pradesh State Assembly in 2003 from Baijnath Constituency. He won again from Baijnath in 2007.
It was for the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh that MLAs were disqualified under the anti-defection law .
Six Congress MLAs, who were disqualified after they cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, had moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday against their disqualification.
The ex-MLAs have filed a plea against the February 29 decision of the state Legislative Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.
These Congress rebels, who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27, later abstained from voting on the Budget, defying a party whip. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha election owing to cross voting by the rebels.
The ruling Congress had sought their disqualification on the ground that they abstained from voting on the Budget, defying a party whip.
The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma. Following their disqualification, the effective strength of the House has gone down from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.
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