HP minister Vikramaditya Singh to hold talks with Kharge in Delhi, meets party rebels

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh met the state's six disqualified Congress MLAs in Haryana's Panchkula on his way to Delhi on Friday when he was also scheduled to hold talks with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

Talking to the media persons here, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said Vikramaditya Singh informed him on Thursday that some of the Congress rebels had approached him and wished to come back.

"I told Vikramaditya Singh to talk to these rebels MLAs and the Congress central leadership," the chief minister said, adding that the family members of these rebel MLAs were talking to them and they want to be in the Congress.

"Vikramaditya Singh will meet with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi today and we will see what development takes place but there is no threat to the government," he said.

The six Congress rebels had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election for the lone seat in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday, leading to the defeat of the party’s official candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

This triggered a crisis and the party's central leadership sent a team of observers to talk with Congress MLAs in Shimla. Meanwhile, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified the six MLAs for allegedly defying a party whip on voting for the state Budget in the assembly.

After the cross-voting, Vikramaditya Singh, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh's son, had announced his resignation from the Cabinet but softened his stand after a meeting with the observers.

Sukhu said the rebels are staying at a hotel in Panchkula. "We will see what to do when they enter Himachal," he added.

On whether the Congress would take the rebels back, Sukhu said, "I have already cleared my stand on the issue..." The chief minister said at a press conference a day before that the party was ready to take the rebels back.

According to his official programme, Singh, who is the Congress-run state's public works minister, is on a two-day trip to Delhi where he will meet Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday.

The state's Congress chief Pratibha Singh, who has in the past expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of the Sukhu government, said the PWD minister has gone to Delhi for some engagements and would also meet the Congress high command.

There is unease in the ruling party as the BJP has repeatedly claimed that some more Congress MLAs were in touch with them and that the government would not last long.

The disqualified MLAs will challenge the orders of the speaker in the Supreme Court, one of them, Rajinder Rana, told PTI on Thursday.

Following the disqualification of the rebel legislators, the effective strength of the House has reduced from 68 to 62 while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34. The BJP has 25 MLAs and the remaining three are Independents.

The Independent MLAs were among the nine MLAs who cross-voted in favour of the BJP Rajya Sabha candidate Harsh Mahajan.