Eight months after it came to power in Himachal Pradesh by winning 40 of the 68 assembly seats, the Congress unit has hit a rough patch with the rift between the state Congress president Pratibha Singh and chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu out in the open.
Pratibha and her son Vikramaditya Singh, who is also the state PWD minister, met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi last week, urging him to set up a panel to coordinate between the party and government. The two complained about the lack of coordination between the party and the government.
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The differences between Sukhu and Pratibha was evident as the two toured the flood-affected areas of Mandi separately. It is learnt that Pratibha had given a list of names of party workers to be “adjusted” in the government, but Sukhu has not paid heed.
Feeling hurt, sidelined, says Pratibha
When contacted, Pratibha said over phone from Delhi: “Party activists who worked day and night for our victory are not being accommodated. Decisions in the government are being taken without consultation, though the chief minister has his own prerogative. The party fought the election in the name of (former CM and her husband) Virbhadra Singh. We were feeling hurt and sidelined. I have not been consulted even once.”
{{/usCountry}}When contacted, Pratibha said over phone from Delhi: “Party activists who worked day and night for our victory are not being accommodated. Decisions in the government are being taken without consultation, though the chief minister has his own prerogative. The party fought the election in the name of (former CM and her husband) Virbhadra Singh. We were feeling hurt and sidelined. I have not been consulted even once.”
{{/usCountry}}During the elections, the Congress had drawn on the legacy of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Pratibha contested the elections from Mandi parliamentary seat that fell vacant after the death of sitting BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma in March 2021. Pratibha defeated the BJP’s Khushal Singh Thakur by 7,490 votes. Subsequently, she was made state party president.
Vikramaditya has been hitting out at the Sukhu-led Congress government, too.
Though the chief minister’s principal media adviser Naresh Chauhan chose to downplay the differences and asserted that there was no problem in the government’s functioning, the appointments of the chief minister’s loyalists has not gone down well with party leaders awaiting induction into the cabinet.
Senior Congress leaders who lost the elections, such as Ram Lal Thakur, Kaul Singh Thakur, and Asha Kumari, have yet to be accommodated, while party leaders Sudhir Sharma and Rajesh Dharmai are still awaiting induction into the ministry.
Three cabinet berths are vacant.
Addressing fiscal concerns crucial
“Dissenting factions within the party are becoming active. The discontent among party members is apparent. Resolving these internal conflicts and addressing the state’s fiscal concerns are crucial for the party’s stability and continued governance,” said Himachal Pradesh University political science professor Ramesh Chauhan.
Despite the fiscal crunch, Sukhu appointed six parliamentary secretaries, chairpersons, and vice-chairpersons in boards and corporations. The debt burden of the Himachal Pradesh government was ₹69,476 crore when the BJP stepped down in the state last year. The Jairam Thakur government had inherited a debt of ₹50,773 crore from the Virbhadra Singh government. Sukhu, who has raised a loan of ₹7,000 crore in seven months, has been unable to curb wasteful expenditure. Instead, he has raised the VAT on diesel and cess on drinking water to tide over the crisis.
Political analyst Ramesh Chauhan said that tall poll promises made by the Congress versus its government’s performance has put the Sukhu government at the crossroads. “Struggling to cope with mounting debt, the hopes of fulfilling populist promises for women, unemployed youngsters, farmers, and government employees, seem like a distant dream,” he said, adding the recent flash floods have only added to the burden.