Cong rebels may find ‘home’ in BJP before elections

Shimla: Having suffered a blow from the Supreme Court, six disqualified Congress rebels will soon join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the by-election in their Assembly constituencies. An indication to this effect was given by Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur here on Tuesday.

Thakur said: “Six MLAs who voted for the BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha have helped the opposition in a big way. It’s now the BJP return to embrace them and give due honour in the party”.

Asked if all of them will get the tickets to contest the bypoll, Thakur said: “The BJP high command will take a final call on this matter even as to how to go in the matter related to their petition in the Supreme Court”.

The Leader of Opposition praised the MLAs for standing against the wishes of the ruling party because they were highly disappointed with the functioning of the Chief Minister. The rebel MLAs did not hide their intentions from the party. They casted their votes (cross-voted) for the BJP showing their votes to authorised party agent.

On contesting the Mandi Parliamentary seat, Thakur said: “This is a matter to be decided by the party leadership”.

Thakur said the party has already named two candidates—Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur) and Suresh Kashyap (Shimla). The decision on the other two seats will also be announced soon.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the party leaders are opposed to rebels given tickets as this would mean sacrificing the interests of their own party men ,who had contested the 2022 poll against them.

Here too, the party may have to tread the path cautiously to prevent rebellion at a time when the Congress is already in the crisis. The rebellion will naturally benefit the ruling party.

The bypoll for the six seats is slated for June 1 simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polling.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Jairam Thakur on Tuesday met Chief Electoral Office Maneesh Garg and submitted a memorandum asking an immediate intervention to stop the Congress from going ahead with its plan to implement a scheme for granting Rs 1,500 per month to all eligible women in the age group of 18 to 59 years.

Accompanied by the party MLAs, he later addressed a press conference and attacked the Congress for cheating women ahead of the poll as the scheme was announced only a few days before the imposition of the Model Code of conduct.

He said ‘Samman Nidhi’ forms are being carried in loads of vehicles by the congress leaders and women are made to fill in the forms. The forms with photographs of late Indira Gandhi are similar to those forms filled in the Legislative Assembly. “During the Assembly elections ,the congress leaders went door-to-door and got the forms filled-up. After the formation of the government, many cabinet meetings were held but the government did not remember this guarantee,” he said.