Even as the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh was successful in diffusing the immediate political crisis in Himachal Pradesh after three-day long chaos with high command’s intervention, the challenge is yet not over for the ruling party.
After the six Congress MLAs, who cross voted in Rajya Sabha poll and defied party’s whip in the House, were disqualified from the State Assembly under Anti Defection Law, the Congress did defeat BJP’s motive of toppling the government at this moment, but all doesn’t seem well within Congress even now, with Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, Pratibha Singh and her son, PWD minister, Vikramaditya Singh reportedly not in a mood to reconcile easily.
Party sources said though after their outburst against their own government’s functioning on Thursday, they came on one stage with Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu when party observers declared a patch-up on Thursday evening, there were reports that Vikramaditya Singh left for Chandigarh last night to meet the disqualified MLAs.
Pratibha Singh, however said, “I don’t know where he is. I don’t keep track of where he goes.”
She said there were no personal grievances. “There were some issues in the party, which we wanted to sort out early as we had to prepare for Lok Sabha also,” she said in an interview to an electronic channel in the morning.
The PCC chief said the Congress had to taste defeat in the Rajya Sabha election despite the party having numbers in the state Assembly, which was not a good sign. She reiterated the people who worked for the party day and night have not been rewarded by any post in the government despite the fact that she personally took up with the Chief Minister.
“They say with what face they would go to Lok Sabha polls and seek votes now,” she said.
Asked whether she had demanded leadership change in Himachal before the Central observers, Pratibha Singh said she had briefed them that some MLAs have some resentment, but they categorically said they cannot do any changes and cannot change the Chief Ministerial face in Himachal Pradesh at the moment. “The observers said we have to sit together to sort out issues,”she said.
Sources said the mother-son duo were reportedly not satisfied with the announcement of the Coordination Committee to iron out differences and wanted immediate action into their grievances. Pratibha Singh had earlier expressed her unhappiness over the disqualification move for the six MLAs and had mentioned that the situation could have been avoided.
The old Virbhadra faction in Congress, which is now headed by former CM, late Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh, does have some support base among MLAs, minus the six disqualified ones (three of whom- Rajender Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal and Sudhir Sharma- were also old Virbhadra loyalists).
This sounds a yet another alarm bell for the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government, especially when the Congress party has come down to the strength of 34 in the Assembly and the BJP, with its 25 MLAs and support of three MLAs, is all geared up to engineer the fall of the Congress government.
The brain behind the opposition party BJP in HP is reportedly former Congress minister, Harsh Mahajan, who won Rajya Sabha poll as BJP candidate through cross voting by Congress MLAs. Mahajan was believed to be the close confidant of former six times Chief Minister, late Virbhadra Singh, and is capable of walking away with more support from amongst the Virbhadra faction in Congress for BJP.
There is a feeling in the Congress party that the rebellion by MLAs was not just about Harsh Mahajan’s popularity in Congress or Congress giving an outsider candidate in Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Congress sources said it was mainly about the piling resentment against the Chief Minister’s functioning, wherein a section of Congress felt ignored, over the last 14 months of Congress rule in HP. And that is why the demand for leadership change came up during the Rajya Sabha poll.
The political observers point out that under such circumstances, it is going to be a tight rope walk for Sukhu, who got a breather from the Congress high command reportedly in the midst of a show of strength by him at Oakover, with Lok Sabha polls around the corner. He may have to take everyone along in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.
The Chief Minister has taken the responsibility for defeat in the Rajya Sabha poll and the intelligence failure in the run up to that.
He has even changed the head of the CID wing of Police in the state in the wake of all this last night, his close associates do feel that the CM will have to make some amendments in the functioning of the government immediately.
“The Congress government will continue for a full five years tenure as per the mandate of the people of Himachal Pradesh. The Congress party has defeated the motive of the BJP. The Chief Minister, who has himself risen from the grassroots, is taking decisions in the interest of the state and the public. The common people are happy with him. Definitely, the government will do the needful and be watchful in the wake of such an episode at the behest of BJP,” said Principal Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, Naresh Chauhan.
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