shimla: Former PCC president and Election Campaign Committee Chairman Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu on Sunday demonstrated his strength in Shimla as he went to submit a memorandum to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on police constables recruitment paper leak. The event, however, was marked by a fresh reflection of the factionalism in the party ahead of the elections.
Neither the PCC president Pratibha Singh nor Congress Legislature party Chief Mukesh Agnihotri accompanied him although Sukhu, on his side had some MLAs and former ministers.
Three days back, when PCC president had summoned a meeting at the Congress party office to do a brainstorming session for the upcoming elections, Sukhu absented himself while several other party functionaries also did not attend the meeting. Some party leaders who were present in the meeting also took defiant postures against the leadership failing to act in a manner showing a right approach for its return to power.
On Sunday, Sukhu led a delegation of legislators viz Rohit Thakur, Anirudh Singh, Lakhwinder Rana and Satpal Raidaja besides former minister Harsh Mahajan to the Raj Bhawan, apart from PCC vice –president Naresh Chauhan.
The development shows that Sukhu was in no mood to give-up his supremacy in the race for leadership as he also banks on support of the MLAs and party office bearers.
During Virbhadra Singh's last term as Chief Minister, Sukhu was PCC president and even then he did not toe Virbhadra's line and tried to build up his own set of party cadres in the districts and blocks.
Nevertheless, this was the first time when the Congress had tried to give an aggressive posture to the paper leak scam.
In the memorandum, he alleged that Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, despite having taken a decision to transfer the case to the CBI, has not taken any further steps.