Shimla, April 2 -- The BJP staged a protest outside the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday, accusing the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government of undermining constitutional provisions to deliberately delay the panchayat elections.

Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur alleged that the government introduced changes to the reservation roster through a backdated notification issued on March 30. He claimed that empowering deputy commissioners to alter up to 5% of reservation allocations violates Article 243D of the Constitution, asserting that reservation must remain strictly based on population and rotation.

Thakur warned that granting discretionary powers to officials would distort representation a...