'Operation Lotus' failed in Himachal, BJP should play constructive role: dy CM

'Operation Lotus' of the BJP has miserably failed in Himachal Pradesh, and now the opposition party should play a constructive role, deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on Monday.

Agnihotri also said six Congress legislators lost their membership of the state Assembly owing to a "conspiracy" by the BJP. "The BJP must introspect now as the Congress which had won 40 seats in the 2022 Assembly polls has again attained the 40-seat mark after by-elections in nine Assembly segments," he told reporters in Shimla.

The hill state had been plunged into a political crisis in February-March when nine MLAs, including six Congress legislators and three Independents, had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls held on 27 February.

Later, the six Congress rebels were disqualified for defying a whip to vote in favour of the Congress government during cut motions and the Budget, while the three Independents themselves resigned from the House on 22 March. All of them joined the BJP on 23 March and were given election tickets by the saffron party from their respective seats.

By-elections to six of these nine vacant seats were held along with the Lok Sabha polls on 1 June. After the Speaker accepted the resignation of the three Independents on 3 June, the bypolls to the three remaining seats were held on 10 July. Six of the nine legislators lost the bypolls.

"Operation Lotus (a popular phrase to describe the BJP's attempts to poach elected members of other parties) failed miserably in Himachal Pradesh and six sitting legislators lost their membership owing to a conspiracy by the BJP. Now, it is time that the opposition plays a constructive role," Agnihotri said.

The Independent MLAs had no reason to resign and must now explain what the compelling circumstances were that they quit their seats, the deputy CM said. "During the Lok Sabha elections, the priority for Congress was to save the government and strengthen it, and we achieved that goal. The government is stable and will complete its term," he added.

Two members of a fact-finding committee were in Shimla on Monday to analyse the reasons behind the Congress' poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls, Agnihotri said, adding that "our priority was to ensure that the state government was stable". The Congress lost all four Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The deputy CM asked the leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur to learn a lesson and own the responsibility for creating political instability in the state for nearly four months to become the chief minister. He also asked Thakur to apologise to the people of the state.

The people gave a clear mandate to the Congress in the 2022 state elections and asked the BJP to sit in the opposition, but Thakur tried to become CM through the backdoor by manipulations and suffered a major jolt, Agnihotri added.