The Himachal Pradesh Congress on Sunday accused the saffron party of orchestrating a conspiracy to destabilize the State Government for power gains. The statement came a day after the defection of nine MLAs — six Congress rebels and three independents — who joined the BJP in New Delhi.

Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil and Industries Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan, in a joint statement, asserted that the BJP’s involvement in the defection has been laid bare, exposing their ulterior motives. The Congress leaders did not mince any words to allege that the six disqualified MLAs, along with the independents, conspired with the BJP to overthrow the “democratically-elected government”.

The Ministers alleged that the BJP, by instigating Congress MLAs, conspired to topple the party’s government in the hill state out of greed for power. “The strategy, face, and character of the BJP has been exposed in front of the public as Congress rebels joining BJP have made it clear that the BJP was behind the whole conspiracy,” said Shandil and Chauhan.

The leaders said that the six MLAs “hatched a conspiracy with the BJP to topple the democratically-elected government”.

The six former Congress MLAs — Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret), and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) — were disqualified by the Vidhan Sabha Speaker for defying a whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the Government during the cut motions and passing of the financial bill (budget).

The three independents, who joined the BJP, were Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh, and KL Thakur from Hamirpur, Dehra, and Nalagarh assembly seats.

“Leaders who won the election on Congress’ symbol and honoured with various posts are now raising fingers at the party…The truth is that all these rebels have left the Congress party due to personal interests and it has nothing to do with the interest of the people of the state,” they said.

With the disqualification of six Congress MLAs, the strength of the ruling Congress came down from 40 to 34, including the Speaker who can vote only in the case of a tie during a floor test, in the 68-member Assembly. The BJP has 25 members.