The BJP parliamentary board has decided to field three former Independent MLAs, as BJP candidates for the ensuing by-elections for three seats of Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, to be held on July 10.
The names of Hoshiyar Singh from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and KL Thakur from Nalagarh, have been cleared by the party .
They had joined BJP after resigning from HP Assembly on March 22 and their resignations were accepted by Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania on June 3rd, after polling for parliament election in the state on June 1st.
The former MLAs were supporting the Congress government headed by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu before Rajya Sabha election in the state but on February 2, had voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan along with six Congress rebel MLAs leading to defeat of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and surprise win of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.
After the defeat of four former Congress rebel MLA out of six, who contested on BJP tickets after switching sides in the recently concluded Vidhan Sabha by-elections, there was a debate within the party to field them.
The BJP parliamentary board cleared their tickets as per the recommendation of the state BJP unit.