Days ahead of the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, the ruling BJP on Monday suspended five of its rebel leaders from the primary membership of the party for contesting as independents.
Those suspended include former MLAs Tejwant Singh Negi (Kinnaur), Kishori Lal (Ani), Manohar Dhiman (Indore), KL Thakur (Nalagarh) and BJP’s Himachal unit vice-president Kripal Parmar.
All these leaders are contesting as independents from their respective constituencies after being denied tickets by the BJP.
Parmar, a former Rajya Sabha MP, is contesting as an independent from the Fatehpur constituency.
“BJP’s state unit president Suresh Kashyap has suspended the workers from the primary membership of the party for six years for contesting as an independent against the official candidate of the party,” the statement said.
Earlier, over a dozen BJP leaders had announced that they would contest the November 12 assembly elections as independents.
However, after the intervention of top BJP leaders, some leaders including former MP Maheshwar Singh, Yuvraj Kapoor and Dharamshala block president Anil Chaudhary withdrew their nominations.
In its first list of candidates, the BJP had denied tickets to its 11 sitting MLAs and shifted the constituencies of two ministers. PTI JTR RHL
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