"No Emperor Can Save His Chair...": Rebel MLA Jabs Himachal Chief Minister

No emperor can save his chair through intimidation, Himachal Pradesh Congress rebel Rajinder Rana said on Monday, a day after an Independent MLA and the father of another rebel were booked over "electoral offences" related to the recent Rajya Sabha polls.

The case against Hamirpur's Independent MLA Ashish Sharma and Gagret's now-disqualified MLA Chetanya Sharma's father and others was registered based on a complaint lodged by Congress legislators Sanjay Avasthi and Bhuvneshwar Gaur.

Ashish and Chetanya are among the six Congress rebels and three Independents who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls.

"Battles are not won by attacking from behind like cowards. Real warriors fight from the front... No 'shahenshah' can save his chair through intimidation and registration of false cases," Rana said in a Facebook post on Monday in an indirect attack on Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

"Time will also take account of those registering cases and those getting them registered. Stopping the business of MLAs and allowing friends to loot, is this a change in the system?" he posed.

Meanwhile, the six Congress rebels and three Independent MLAs who had voted for the BJP candidate in the recent Rajya Sabha polls, in a joint statement, accused the government of getting false cases registered against them and their relatives to build pressure.

This was against the democratic spirit and would not help save the government which is on a ventilator, they said in the statement and asserted that they would not be cowed down by such tactics.

Congress legislators Sanjay Avasthi and Bhuvneshwar Gaur had filed a complaint, seeking an investigation into "electoral offences", bribery and criminal conspiracy in the whole sequence of events since the Rajya Sabha polls were held on February 27. They alleged "horse trading and misuse of money to influence the elections".

The development evoked sharp reactions from the disqualified MLAs.

On Sunday, Mr Rana maintained that "with this attitude, the chief minister should be ready to face the consequences in future. If the chief minister thinks that he could win hearts by registering false complaints, he is mistaken and these pressure tactics will not help." Six Congress rebels -- Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto -- who cross-voted in favour of the BJP were disqualified for defying a whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the government during the cut motion and budget. They moved the Supreme Court against their disqualification.

The three Independent MLAs who voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls were Ashish Sharma, Hoshiyar Singh and K L Thakur.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)