Breather: Sukhu to continue as CM, Congress overcomes turmoil in Himachal Pradesh

 Failing badly to get Rajya Sabha seat despite full majority in the 68-member House, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu seems to have successfully weathered the political storm that even had threatened the survival of the 14-month old Congress government, alone in northern states.

But, that was not before paying a heavy cost of losing six party MLAs ,who earlier cross-voted for the BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan and later disqualified by the Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania for defying the party whip in the House, during passing of the state Budget for year 2024-25.

A team of party observers led by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda, who were rushed to Shimla by the party high command to save the government from crisis caused by the rebel MLAs ,and also resignation of PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister(late)Virbhadra Singh, declared later in the day that Sukhu will stay as Chief Minister.

“All is well. This government will stay for 5 years. All issues have been sorted out,” he said.

Shivakumar added: “We heard grievances of all the MLAs. All differences have been sorted –out. We have also evolved a mechanism to ensure close cooperation between the party and the government.”

He announced that a six-member committee would be formed soon with Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and PCC president Pratibha Singh, a sitting MP, to periodically meet and settle all issues which crop-up between the organisation and government.

Shivakumar also informed the media persons that Vikramaditya Singh,who had resigned from the PWD, has agreed to withdraw the resignation.

“Himachal Pradesh is a ‘Dev-Bhumi’. We have blessings of all deities. I have also gone to Ayodhya and attended Pranpratistha. Lord Rama has blessed us,” said Vikramaditya Singh, who till Wednesday was defiant alleging insult, disrespect and interference in his working as Cabinet minister from the Chief Minister’s office.

His mother Pratibha Singh also mellowed down after talks with the central party observers and hoped that the party will work whole-heartedly and win all the four Lok Sabha seats, which is the next big task in the hands of the party.

We must be united. There should be coordination and that’s the reason why this coordination committee has been set up,’ she said.

The party observers chose to parade all the MLAs before the media persons to claim that the Chief Minister has the backing of all 34 MLAs while six have been disqualified by the Speaker under the anti-defection law.

Sukhu,sitting next to PCC president Pratibha Singh, took responsibility for the loss in the Rajya Sabha polls even as he admitted that this was a bad chapter in the political history of Himachal Pradesh.

Yet he claimed that party candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had lost to BJP’s Harsh Mahajan due to cross-voting and also by the draw of lots.

“I agree that I failed, but also there was intelligence failure and we did not know that BJP is trying to poach our MLAs,” Sukhu admitted.

The trouble of the Congress and Sukhu in particular has been brewing for a long time due to his style of working as some of the MLAs have also taken to social media to articulate their sentiments against the Chief Minister.

Vikramadity Singh has also been quite vocal to assert his position and even had defied the party line to visit Ayodhya.

“The ministerial post doesn’t matter to me when it comes to self-respect,” he wrote sometime back.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur described the decision of disqualification of the MLAs as unconstitutional. He said the congress has lost majority in the state Assembly and such steps including suspension of 15 BJP MLAs and now unseating of Congress MLAs –who had voted for the BJP, was taken to save the government.

The government will not last long as people of the state now want to see the BJP government.

Meanwhile, six Congress MLAs disqualified under the anti-defection law, have announced to challenge the decision in the High Court. “If there is no relief from there, then we will approach the Supreme Court. The decision is unconstitutional and taken in haste to save the government and Chief Minister’s chair. We have a lot of legal options,” said Sudhir Sharma, one of the six MLAs unseated.

The day was marked by high drama in Shimla as immediately after the Speaker announced his decision, the congress MLAs and ministers headed to Chief minister’s official residence ‘Oak-over” for a breakfast meeting where the party observers also arrived. Later in the day, the observers appeared before the media happily.

The BJP MLAs also were huddled together in a hotel to draw-up the next strategy as Jairam Thakur said the Congress government is a “guest” of few days.