Cong removes HP leader from party secretary’s post amid stepped up efforts to end rebellion

 The Congress has stepped up efforts to set its house in order in Himachal Pradesh and is holding parleys with senior ministers of the state where its government was on the edge after six party MLAs switched sides and helped the BJP nominee win the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state.

The party on Wednesday removed former minister Sudhir Sharma, who was among the six rebel MLAs who were later disqualified for defying party whip on the state budget, from the post of AICC Secretary with immediate effect.

Sharma is a senior leader from Dharamshala and a former Himachal Pradesh minister.

In a release, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said party president Mallikarjun Kharge has removed Sharma from the post of secretary with immediate effect.

Sharma responded in a Facebook post saying, “I have been relieved as if all the burden was on my shoulders.... One who does not need anything is Shehanshah.”

In another post, he quoted the Bhagwad Gita which said, “Suffering injustice is as much a crime as committing it” and asserted that the decisions taken by them are based on it.

He also said that he will continue to remain dedicated to the state of Himachal Pradesh and its people.

Senior party legislator Rajinder Rana also announced his resignation from the post of working president of Himachal Congress.

“I do hereby resign from the post of working president of HPCC with immediate effect,” Rana said in his resignation letter to Kharge that he shared in a post on Facebook.

“Running from Sujanpur to Shimla and from Shimla to Delhi with folded hands for the fulfilment of the promises made by the Congress in the run-up to the last Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh did not yield results. I wished for justice, but got only humiliation,” he had said in a Facebook post addressed to people of Himachal on Tuesday.

Sources said Kharge and general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K C Venugopal have been meeting senior legislators and ministers from Himachal Pradesh after the party managed to save its government in the state by getting the state budget passed through voice vote.

The Congress currently has 34 MLAs while the BJP has 25 and three are independents who had also sided with the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls. The six rebel Congress MLAs have meanwhile challenged their disqualification in Supreme Court.