Three newly elected Himachal MLAs take oath of office

Congress candidates Kamlesh Thakur, Hardeep Singh Bawa gave the ruling plenty to cheer about in the July 10 bypoll, while only silver lining for the BJP was its candidate Ashish Sharma winning from Hamirpur

Assembly speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania administered the oath of office to the three newly elected legislators chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra, Hardeep Singh Bawa from Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur.

Himachal assembly speaker Kuldeep Pathania with CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and his wife and newly elected MLA Kamlesh Thakur. (ANI)

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh congratulated the trio in the presence of leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, deputy speaker Vinay Kumar, ministers and other MLAs.

Congress candidates Kamlesh Thakur, Hardeep Singh Bawa gave the ruling plenty to cheer about in the July 10 bypoll, while only silver lining for the BJP was its candidate Ashish Sharma winning from Hamirpur.

Later, while interacting with the media, Sukhu said the people of Himachal have firmly rejected the politics of horse-trading. He said a conspiracy had been hatched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to topple the elected government, resulting in the bypolls. The Congress Party, he said, exposed the BJP’s conspiracy.

Noting that the Congress representation in the assembly is back up to 40 MLAs, before urging BJP leaders to abandon “negative” politics and cooperate with the state government for development work.

Reiterating his commitment to lead the state on the path of speedy development with the people’s support, the CM said the government has already created 28,000 job opportunities in the government sector alone, in contrast to the 20,000 jobs provided by the BJP government during its full five years tenure.