Himachal: Will Sukhu expand his Cabinet before Lok Sabha polls?

Shimla: Will he, or will not he? This is a most pertinent question being asked in the state’s political circles as Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu is keeping half-a-dozen aspirants of the Cabinet berths guessing.

Seven months into power, Sukhu is fighting two battles simultaneously as the Congress heads for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — one to keep the MLAs flock together and another to implement 10 poll guarantees in view of the state’s grim financial position.

The Cabinet has three vacancies to be filled up to give presentations to certain districts, including Kangra, the state’s biggest district, which made the victory of Congress possible in the November polls.

Of 10 MLAs elected from Kangra, which has 15 assembly seats, Sukhu has inducted only one minister while Shimla has three Cabinet ministers among seven MLAs — a huge political imbalance which could queer the Congress pitch in the politically hyper district.

But the pressure right now is also to give a presentation to Bilaspur — the home district of BJP national president J P Nadda where the Congress could win just one assembly seat with the election of Rajesh Dharmani, a third-time MLA.

The party high command is understood to have told the CM for sharing of power with MLAs, who have been potential to make the BJP suffer humiliations in the polls. The BJP had been talking of changing the custom of swapping power after every five years, a dream former CM Jai Ram Thakur had sold to the cadres.

When asked about Cabinet expansion, Sukhu refused to give a clear answer admitting that the party high command had told him to undertake expansion the earlier the better.

Two reasons, which look prominent for Sukhu’s reluctance to induct three MLAs are related to his own choice. It’s an admitted fact that he doesn’t want Sudhir Sharma, a former minister and Dharamshala MLA to be part of his ministry. Sharma is a Brahmin face but had been hobnobbing with AAP as well as BJP ahead of the assembly polls. He also reportedly did not support the Congress during 2019 assembly bypoll and the Lok Sabha polls.

Rajendra Rana, the man who defeated former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2017 Assembly polls at Sujanpur and watered down Dhumal’s chances to be chief minister, is strong contender for the Cabinet position. He also has the high command backing. As he hails from Hamirpur — Sukhu’s home district, he remains an unfavorable choice. Rana has also not openly supported candidature of Sukhu for chief ministership.

So who could be other choices to fill up the vacancies from Kangra? Names like Sanjay Rattan, Yadvinder Goma – a Dalit face and Bhawani Singh ­— a Rajput, are going around even as Vinay Kumar, also a Dalit from Sirmaur district and Inderdutt Lakhanpal from Hamirpur are also in the queue.

Sukhu has not been able to decide on appointing Congress leaders to the posts of chairmen and vice-chairmen of broads and corporation .There is quite a discontentment brewing even among some ministers against delay in Cabinet expansion and also making few MLAs as Chief Parliamentary secretaries on personal whims and fancies by the chief minister.