The political storm caused by cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha Elections in Himachal Pradesh is not letting up. Not only did the special representatives sent by the Congress high command try to broker a compromise, the Speaker also took action against the rebel MLAs.
Yet there is something that the fire of discontent in the state Congress has not been extinguished. Himachal Pradesh has sent a message to the MLAs of the entire country that even if you are always a Yesman and keep quiet, the Rajya Sabha Elections are a moment to fan the flames of discontent, when an ordinary MLA can leapfrog the tyranny of the high command by cross-voting. An army of obedient MLAs is spread across the country. They have talent, leadership qualities and original ideologies, but they have to put all that outside and then enter the House.
These are the veteran MLAs who tremble when they even present the issues of their area. They fear the party. An Assembly or Lok Sabha ticket is now a favor and under it the winning candidate is suppressed. Then it spends five years of suppressed inactivity. The interesting thing about Himachal is that the Rajya Sabha elections created the most chaos in this state with only one Rajya Sabha seat. After news of cross-voting by Congress MLAs broke, there was no dearth of issues cited as the reasons for it, but all issues were resolved when special representatives from the high command - DK Shivakumar and Bhupinder Singh Hooda - claimed to have resolved the matter by talking to all parties. This claim has been proven to be hollow.
The disqualification of six Congress MLAs who cross-voted for assembly membership means that there is no chance of their return. After this, the Chief Minister also said that even if these people are removed, his government's majority in the Assembly will remain intact. It was clear that the Sukhu government of the state bore the brunt of this setback. It was believed that it would be difficult for the rebel group to muster one-third of its strength. With more than three years remaining in the legislative term, MLAs will not want to risk their membership. After this it was naturally expected that the matter would gradually calm down. But subsequent events show that the rebel group has not yet laid down its arms.
Apart from the statements of the disqualified MLAs, the behavior of the ministers is also raising questions. Two ministers also did not attend the cabinet meeting held on Saturday. Apart from him, two ministers left in the middle of the meeting. Although there are different interpretations of this, the biggest thing is that the dissident groups are still maintaining their strict stance. Pradesh Party President Pratibha Singh is clearly saying in the media that he has no contact with BJP yet, but he cannot say anything about what will happen tomorrow.
It is clear that the prospect of Lok Sabha elections is complicating the whole matter. BJP is happy to see its own advantage in fanning this fire, but it has no idea that this can happen to them too. With these coincidences, the Congress leadership is trying its best to keep both parties together. On the other hand, the disgruntled group also sees this as a good opportunity to forcefully satisfy their demands.
However, we will have to wait a bit to see what the outcome of this interesting dilemma is. Such events are a challenge for a political party to avoid making it a one-man or one-woman show. These are all loopholes in the party's monopoly. Those who wrong their loyal allies end up in the same situation as the Congress today.
