Shimla: In continuation of their ongoing rebellion against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the nine MLAs (including three independents and six disqualified Congress MLAs) who had voted in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently-held Rajya Sabha elections, echoed a collective sentiment on the existing political crisis in the hill state, stressing that CM Sukhu should introspect and realise who is responsible for the current situation, news agency PTI reported on Sunday. 

In a joint statement, the MLAs reportedly said that they are fighting a battle of self-respect and questioned the mindset of the chief minister, who is approaching them for compromise on one hand and issuing statements like black snakes and shepherds on the other.

For the uninitiated, Sukhu had, during the public meetings in the recent past, said that “six black snakes of the Congress sold their honour and tried to destabilise the state government” and later compared them to shepherds being moved from one place to another.

The nine MLAs include six Congress rebels Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto, and three independents Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and KL Thakur.

The MLAs asked Sukhu to come clean on his official visits to Chandigarh in which he stayed at a five-star hotel rather than his designated room in the Himachal Bhawan, PTI reported.

They further questioned the reason behind sending the security back from the five-star hotel and asked the chief minister to “inform the public about his hidden agenda”.

The MLAs were feeling suffocated and humiliated in the government as the chief minister prefers his friends over all others and the circle of friends was dominating the MLAs, part of the joint statement read.

The people of the state also know very well what "cabinet rank friends" are doing in this government and how much loot they have created, the statement added. 

Supreme Court to Hear Plea of 6 Disqualified MLAs on March 12

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the plea by six rebel Congress MLAs against their disqualification, on Tuesday. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra will hear on March 12 the plea against the February 29 decision of Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, who had disqualified the six on the Congress party's request for "defying" the party whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the budget.

In their plea before the top court, the rebel lawmakers have made Pathania as well as state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan a party, according to PTI.  

Furthermore, the MLAs have alleged violation of the principle of natural justice, claiming that they did not get adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition.

These Congress rebels, who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27, had later "abstained" from voting on the Budget. 

Following their disqualification, the effective strength of the House has gone down from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.

(With inputs from PTI)