The opposition will be heard more in the coming winter session of Himachal Pradesh assembly as majority of Congress MLAs would not be able to ask questions during the session because most of them hold important positions in the government. This would leave the opposition BJP in a dominating position during the question hour proceedings.
The winter session is beginning from December 16 and will conclude on December 21. In the 68-member house, Congress has 36 MLAs, BJP 26, whereas 5 MLAs are independents and 1 is from Himachal Lokhit Party.
In spite of having a clear majority, only 13 Congress MLAs would be able to ask questions, as others will be on the answering side, being cabinet ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries cannot ask questions as per the rules.
Sources said that having more MLAs able to ask questions could have benefited Congress as the ruling legislators mostly praise the government and raise issues against the previous government to attack the opposition. Of the 36 Congress MLAs, 11 MLAs are ministers, 9 chief parliamentary secretaries, 2 occupy the chair of speaker and deputy speaker chair, and 1 MLA is in jail on murder charges.
It is also said that under the present scenario, Congress is relying on some of the independent MLAs, who are also associate members of Congress, to counter opposition BJP inside the house. It added that while the cabinet ministers can hit back at the opposition while replying to their queries, the chief parliamentary secretaries will have to sit quiet throughout the session as they can neither ask question nor reply.
