The ruling Congress and the opposition BJP are set to have new party chiefs in Himachal Pradesh. While Congress may take some time to decide on the party chief’s face in the next few months, the BJP is in the midst of finalising the name and may announce it this month.
In Congress, Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is trying his best to get hold of the organisation also and he may lobby for one of his loyalists to become the next party president of Congress, especially after the High Court quashing the appointment of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) that ousted some of his confidantes also.
Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Pratibha Singh, however, would want her loyalist to sit on the coveted post to strike a balance of sorts, as she is no longer an MP now and may lose prominence once she is out of this post. Singh may also lobby to retain the position for the second time.
Sources said the Congress high command has so far been taking into consideration Pratibha Singh and her son, Vikramaditya Singh (Public Works Department minister in Sukhu’s cabinet) keeping in view the clout of former six times CM, late Virbhadra Singh in Himachal Congress for past many decades.
“The final decision rests with the high command and its considerations as to how to shape up Congress politics in Himachal Pradesh with so much transition in leadership taking place,” said a senior party leader.
In BJP, however, the names doing the rounds for the top party position in Himachal Pradesh have to do much with the leadership in the 2027 Assembly polls, as whosoever becomes the party chief now may be in a commanding position in polls also.
Party sources said while the former minister and state BJP Chief, Rajiv Bindal, who is better known for his organizational skills and had led the party to victory in all four Lok Sabha seats in HP, is again in race for the post, Bilaspur MLA, Trilok Jamwal and Lok Sabha MP from Kangra, Rajeev Bhardwaj are front runners for the coveted post.
Sources said both Jamwal and Bhardwaj are close to the National BJP President, Jagat Prakash Nadda, who hails from the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, Bindal has his own backing in the central leadership. The name of former BJP Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur, who is presently Leader of Opposition, also cropped up for the party post, but, sources said, he is personally not in favour of his shift from the present position, which keeps him in more limelight in view of 2027 Assembly polls.
Thakur and Bindal, it is learnt, do not go along well so far as party functioning is concerned. In previous BJP tenure, when Bindal was shifted as state BJP chief from the Assembly Speaker’s post, the bad equation with then CM, Jai Ram Thakur, had led to Bindal’s ouster from top party post over a controversy, which cropped up and died down later without corroborative evidence.
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Some other names doing the rounds for the state BJP chief’s post in HP are former BJP chief and Una MLA, Satpal Singh Satti, former minister and party MLA from Jaswan Pragpur, Bikram Thakur.
“The BJP is likely to have a new BJP chief in HP after the oath ceremony of the new Delhi Chief Minister. Few names are there, but the final call is of the high command, which may have its own calculations,” said Media Incharge of BJP in Himachal, Karan Nanda.
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