E-Paper
Himachal bypolls: Three newly elected MLAs take oath
The MLAs -- Rohit Thakur (Jubbal-Kotkhai), Bhawani Singh Pathania (Fatehpur) and Sanjay Awasthi (Arki) -- were elected at the Himachal bypoll and were administered the oath of office by speaker Vipin Singh Parmar
Three newly elected Congress legislators, who had won the Himachal bypolls held in three assembly segments on October 30, were sworn in as members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Monday.
The newly elected MLAs -- Rohit Thakur (Jubbal-Kotkhai), Bhawani Singh Pathania (Fatehpur) and Sanjay Awasthi (Arki) --were administered the oath of office by speaker Vipin Singh Parmar at his chamber in the Assembly Complex in Shimla. Among those in attendence at the swearing-in were leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and several other Congress members.
The Jubbal-Kotkhai seat had fallen vacant after the demise of former BJP minister Narinder Singh Bragta. Rohit had won the bypoll for the Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly seat with a margin of 6,103 votes. He had defeated the former minister’s son Chetan Singh Bragta, who had contested as an Independent after the BJP denied him ticket. Meanwhile, the BJP candidate, Neelam Saraik, could not even save her security deposit.
In Arki, where the bypoll was necessitated after the death of former six-term chief minister and sitting legislator Vribhadra Singh in July this year, Awasthi won the election by a margin of over 3,000 votes.
Bhawani Singh Pathania, the son of senior Congress leader and former minister Sujan Singh Pathania, whose death had led to the bypoll, secured an easy victory after defeating his nearest rival BJP’s Baldev Thakur by 5,789 votes.
The 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly now has 22 Congress legislators, while the ruling BJP has 43 members after forfeiting the Jubbal -Kotkhai seat. Two members of the Assembly are independents, while one is affiliated to the CPI(M).
