The Himachal Pradesh unit of the Congress has appointed three ministers as in-charges for by-election to Dehra, Nalagarh and Hamirpur assembly seats.
The three Independent MLAs -- Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur), Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra) and KL Thakur (Nalagarh) -- resigned from the assembly on March 22 and joined the BJP the following day. The by-elections will be held on July 10.
A statement issued here said Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar has been appointed in charge of Dehra assembly seat, Education Minister Rohit Thakur for Nalagarh and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Dharmani for Hamirpur. The Congress leaders have been alleging that nine MLAs, including six Congress rebels, and the three Independents who voted in favour of the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls on February 27 and BJP tried to topple the government by using money.
The statement said that the party won four seats in the recent assembly by-elections, which proves that the people of Himachal Pradesh are happy with the policies, programmes and leadership of the Congress government and the voters have rejected the horse-trading policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"In the upcoming bypolls, the Congress will unitedly face the unethical tactics of the BJP and hoist the victory flag on these three seats," the statement added.
