Himachal Pradesh: Three newly elected MLAs of Himachal Pradesh Assembly will take oath of office and secrecy on Monday. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at 11 am in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly premises. The oath of membership will be administered by Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. The three newly elected MLAs who took oath include Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and Hardeep Singh Bawa from Nalagarh.
Congress has 40 and BJP has 28 MLAs
At present, the number of members in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly is 65. After the oath taking of three newly elected MLAs today, the number of members will become 68. These include 40 Congress and 28 BJP MLAs. There is no independent MLA in the Assembly now. A figure of 34 is required for majority in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. Congress has a clear majority in the Assembly and now the government looks completely strong.
Mathematics of Himachal Pradesh Assembly
Total members in the Assembly- 68
Majority figure- 34
Ruling party Congress- 40
Opposition BJP- 28
Political upheaval seen in Himachal for five months
Political upheaval was seen in Himachal Pradesh after the Rajya Sabha elections held on 27 February. Six Congress MLAs did cross voting. After this, the membership of Congress MLAs was terminated for violating the whip. Three independent MLAs also resigned from their membership. Due to this, by-elections were held on six seats first due to the termination of membership of Congress MLAs and then on three seats due to the resignation of independent MLAs.
In the by-elections on a total of nine seats, Congress won on six and BJP on three. Overall, Congress had the upper hand in these by-elections. The monsoon session of Himachal Pradesh Assembly is likely at the end of August. The monsoon session of the Assembly is likely to be very tumultuous.