Himachal Pradesh Speaker suspends 15 BJP MLAs

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Wednesday suspended 15 BJP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur.

The BJP MLAs were suspended for "misbehaving" with marshals outside Pathania's office on Tuesday, 27 February and creating disorder in the House.

Apart from Thakur, the suspended MLAs are Vipin Parmar, Vinod Kumar, Hans Raj, Janak Raj, Balbir Verma, Trilok Jamwal, Deep Raj, Surinder Shouri, Puran Thakur, Inder Singh Gandhi, Dilip Thakur, Randhir Sharma, Lokender Kumar, and Ranvir Singh.

The development comes minutes after Congress minister Vikramaditya Singh announced his resignation from the Cabinet, saying there were attempts to suppress the voice of MLAs, and that has led to this situation for the government. Vikramaditya is the son of Congress stalwart and six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh.