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Summoned by Congress high command, Sukhu rushes to Delhi
The development comes amid the Congress government in Himachal has been dealing with the aftermath of losing the Rajya Sabha polls for the lone vacant seat in the state despite enjoying a clear majority of 40 in a 68-strong assembly
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu rushed to New Delhi on Thursday after being summoned by Congress high command.
The development comes amid the Congress government in Himachal has been dealing with the aftermath of losing the Rajya Sabha polls for the lone vacant seat in the state despite enjoying a clear majority of 40 in a 68-strong assembly.
Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel were in Himachal after the poll loss to meet the state leaders and workers, and seek feedback about the working of the government.
The observers were to submit a report of their finding to the Congress leadership. Party insiders say that a recent report submitted to the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge cast aspersions over the chief minister’s political acumen, highlighting his “failure” to handle the crisis.
The report, hat commissioned to assess the fallout of the loss, heavily criticised Sukhu for his “ignorance of cross-voting dynamics and inability to maintain party unity”.
It deemed Sukhu’s inability to prevent cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha elections as unacceptable.
The report also flays state Congress chief Pratibha Singh’s role and proposes that she contest the Lok Sabha polls with the state chief post given to someone else. According to the report, the observers proposed a swift resolution to address disgruntled members’ concerns, suggesting the distribution of corporations and other posts to around 12 “dissatisfied” MLAs before the model code of conduct is enforced.
The report also suggests a coordination committee comprising chief minister, deputy CM, party state chief and two leaders appointed by Congress president.
It condemns actions of public works minister Vikramaditya Singh, accusing him of breaking party discipline and raising doubts about his reliability in future endeavors.
The report also shed light on allegations of monetary inducements by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to those who cross-voted.
All India Congress Committee in-charge of Himachal affairs Rajeev Shukla had also submitted a report apprising high command of the circumstances that triggered the “revolt”.
On February 27, BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan defeated Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi after 6 MLAs of the grand old party cross-voted. The BJP, that has 25 seats in the House, managed 34 votes as the three independents also voted for Mahajan.
The tie was resolved by a draw lots. The six Congress MLAs, Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutto, Ravi Thakur and Chaitanya Sharma, were disqualified on February 29 by speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania for violating the party whip and abstaining from voting on the budget. The disqualification had no connecting with the Rajya Sabha polls, the speaker had said. The rebel MLAs have moved Supreme Court against the disqualification.
