Resignations & deaths reduces the strength of 4th Vidhan Sabha
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Deaths of three MLAs in less than six months this year and resignation of an equal number of MLAs has reduced the effective strength of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha to 65. The assembly has 70 elected members and one nominated member of the Anglo Indian community. Apart from this the sword of suspension is hanging over two independent members who have recently joined the ranks of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With the current strength of 65 now the fourth Vidhan Sabha has the second least number of members after the then speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal disqualified nine rebel MLAs of Congress party under anti defection law in March 2016.
Incidentally Harbans Kapoor who died in his sleep on Monday morning is the sixth MLA of the fourth Vidhan Sabha to die. The term of the current Vidhan Sabha started in 2017 and would end in March 2022. In the last six months the fourth Vidhan Sabha also saw the deaths of Gangotri MLA Gopal Singh Rawat on April 23 and Haldwani MLA and leader of Opposition (LoP) Indira Hridayesh on June 13 this year.
Similarly on November 12 last year, BJP’s young and energetic MLA from Salt, Surendra Singh Jeena had died while the then Finance minister and MLA from Pithoragarh Prakash Pant lost his life to cancer on June 5, 2019. Tharali MLA Magan Lal Shah was the first MLA of fourth Vidhan Sabha who died in February 2018. Bye elections were held in three assembly constituencies of Tharali, Pithrogarh and Salt after deaths of sitting MLAs. Ruling BJP played the sympathy card by nominating spouses of Shah and Pant in Tharali and Pithoragarh and giving the party ticket to the brother of Jeena in Salt. The move was successful as Munni Devi (Tharali), Chandra Pant ( Pithoragarh) and Mahesh Jeena ( Salt) were elected to the assembly. Since the term of the assembly is about to end the by elections for Gangotri, Haldwani and Dehradun Cantt would not be held.
Recently the father son duo of Yashpal Arya and Sanjeev Arya who were MLAs from Bajpur and Nainital respectively had resigned from the membership of the house after defecting to Congress party. Similarly Purola MLA Rajkumar who was elected on Congress ticket resigned from assembly after joining BJP. Bhimtal MLA Ram Singh Kaida and Dhanaulti MLA Pritam Singh Panwar who were independents and have recently joined the BJP have not submitted their resignation from assembly yet.
