Barring Rathore, Congress dissolves Himachal unit
Shimla: In a huge blow to the state Congress unit, AICC president Sonia Gandhi cracked her whip dissolving entire PCC, and its bodies at the districts and block levels following complaints about some arbitrary and inappropriate appointments made during past few months.
Surprisingly, Kuldeep Singh Rathore, incumbent PCC president, however, has been retained.
An AICC release in Delhi quoting K C Venugopal, general secretary, said, "Congress president Sonia Gandhi has dissolved the office bearers and executive members of PCC, DCCs and BCCs of Himachal Pradesh with immediate effect." "The president of Himachal Pradesh PCC shall remain unchanged," he clarified. The decision that has shocked for the majority of the party leaders in the wake of recent bypoll's for two assembly constituencies as party perform poorly due to factionalism and bad poll management.
The insiders allege that the party's organisational set-up was in complete shambles in the state. There were large-scale appointments done in the districts and blocks during past two months that had left several senior Congress leaders disillusioned with Rathore and his team. "The party's management was absolutely in chaos. We took up the matter with the high command. The Congress president also got a lot of adverse feed-backs about certain appointments and some dubious actions, during and after Lok Sabha polls. The Congress needed sweeping change," a veteran party leader and MLA admitted.
Meanwhile, Kuldeep Rathore responds to media queries saying that the party has reposed faith in him by retaining him but several sitting MLAs believe there could be changes at the top level is not ruled-out sometime later.
The 56-year-old Rathore, a staunch loyalist of former union minister Anand Sharma, was appointed as PCC president in January 2019 replacing Sukhwinder Sukhu, a sitting MLA. Though Sukhu was also a favourite of Sharma he had a running row with former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who worked aggressively to get him changed. The real tiff at the party will begin now. The Congress camps will try to consolidate own position and get a place in the new party executive and other bodies.
Kuldeep Rathore's position will also highly vulnerable. There are reports that the Congress high command may tip an experienced leader lead the Congress in BJP-ruled state and give a new look to the organisation.
