Congress dissolves HP state unit, retains Rathore

In a state-level move, the Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress also dissolved executive committees of its two blocks in Bilaspur district

On a revamp mode, the Congress on Wednesday dissolved its party unit besides district and block committees in Himachal Pradesh.

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However, the president of the state Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Kuldeep Singh Rathore was retained, a circular signed by party general secretary KC Venugopal said.

“Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) has dissolved the office bearers and executive committee of the PCC, DCC and BCCs of Himachal Pradesh with immediate effect. The president of the PCC shall remain unchanged,” reads the circular.

In a state-level move, the Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress also dissolved executive committees of its two blocks in Bilaspur district. The executive panels of Naina Devi and Jukhala blocks were dissolved with immediate effect, state Youth Congress president Manish Thakur said in a statement.

Thakur said the executive panels were dissolved with the consent of the All-India Youth Congress secretary Jagdev Gaga as several of their members were above age.

Executive panels of other blocks would be dissolved soon, he added.

Rathore was appointed the state party chief on January 10 this year ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He replaced Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who served on the post for about six years from 2013.

The factional feud that had been raging between the former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s loyal force and Sukhu camp only intensified after Rathore was appointed the state president.

As HPCC chief, Sukhu had openly blamed the former chief minister for his ouster while the latter had accused him of harming the party in the state.

Supporters from the two Congress factions had also come to blows on the day the new chief took over the reins. The party high command was forced to issue a warning to the warring leaders to quell the slugfest.

However, a cold war has been brewing between Rathore and Sukhu. The former HPCC president has been skipping the events being attended by Rathore.

Most recently, Sukhu preferred to skip the rally led by Rathore in Hamirpur to protest against the state government over rising inflation and unemployment. He did not attend the protest march in Shimla as well which was led by state in-charge Rajni Patil.

Rathore has been on other leaders’ target as well and has been locking horns with them on occasions. Recently, just before the byelections for Dharamshala and Pachhad assembly elections, former minister Sudhir Sharma had accused Rathore of appointing office bearers in various frontal organisations without consulting the leaders of the concerned areas.

Sharma and state Youth Congress chief Manish Thakur, who is a close confident of Rathore, also crossed swords over appointments in the youth wing of the party.

However, with Rathore retention as the state party chief, the Congress has reposed faith in his leadership.