BJP expels 5 rebel leaders in Himachal, state vice president among them

Those expelled include former MLAs -- Tejwant Singh Negi (Kinnaur), Kishori Lal (Anni), Manohar Dhiman (Indora), K L Thakur (Nalagarh) -- and the BJP's Himachal unit vice-president Kripal Parmar.

New Delhi/Shimla: The BJP on Monday expelled five of its rebel leaders from the party for contesting the upcoming state assembly polls as Independents since the BJP denied tickets to them. The suspended MLAs are Tejwant Singh Negi (Kinnaur), Kishori Lal (Anni), Manohar Dhiman (Indora), K L Thakur (Nalagarh) as well as the party's Himachal unit vice-president Kripal Parmar, a former Rajya Sabha MP who is contesting as an Independent from Fatehpur constituency.

"BJP's state unit president Suresh Kashyap has suspended the workers from the primary membership of the party for six years for contesting the elections as Independents against the party's official candidate," the statement read.

Earlier, more than a dozen BJP leaders had announced that they would be contesting as Independents in the upcoming Assembly elections. However, some of the leaders, including former MP Maheshwar Singh, Yuvraj Kapoor and Dharamshala block president Anil Chaudhary, withdrew their nominations after the BJP intervened.

The BJP had denied tickets to its 11 sitting MLAs and shifted the constituencies of two ministers, as per the first list of candidates. Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on November 12.