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Rival faction opens front against Himachal Congress chief Kuldeep Rathore
The disgruntled leaders have written to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention to straighten things out in the party’s state unit.
The infighting among Himachal Congress is out in the open as a rival faction has shot a letter to the central leadership against the state president Kuldeep Singh Rathore.
Over half a dozen disgruntled Congress leaders, who owe allegiance to former minister Kaul Singh Thakur and former Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, held a meeting in Mandi expressing dissatisfaction over Rathore’s “unilateral” functioning.
They also wrote a letter to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention in the matter. The signatory of the letter included Lal Singh Kaushal, Jiwan Thakur, Pawan Thakur, Champa Thakur, who contested the 2017 assembly elections unsuccessfully and former minister Mansa Ram, among others.
In the letter, the rebel leaders alleged that Rathore did not consult the senior party leaders while reshuffling or dissolving and reconstitution of Pradesh Congress Committee, district or block units.
“Such people who are not even the primary members of the party have been appointed on key organisational posts. Some of them even worked against the party’s official candidates during the 2017 assembly election, resulting in an embarrassing defeat for the party,” they alleged.
The mishandling of affairs by the current president was also reflected in party’s dismal performance in 2019 general elections and assembly by-election wherein the Congress candidates forfeited their deposit and the party’s vote share dropped from 48% to just 17%, they added.
They said the day-to-day working of the present party setup in the state was not satisfactory, particularly when it comes to opposing the anti-people policies of the BJP government
“The Congress missed a great opportunity to corner the government when a scam surfaced in the health department. This happened due to wrong ₹20 crore expenditure shown by the HPCC chief in the fight against Covid-19. There was no evidence to corroborate the claims and Congress party came on a back foot,” said the anti-Rathore group.
The rival faction further wrote that the senior Congress leaders in the state were also unhappy with the way things were going and held a brainstorming session at the state capital to rejuvenate the party.
“It’s high time that the AICC intervened in the state leadership to boost the morale of the ground-level workers,” they said, requesting the high command to set up a high-level coordination committee of senior leaders for better handling of party affairs in the state.
Meanwhile, Rathore has termed the letter a conspiracy of the ruling BJP against him.
“Some BJP leaders have orchestrated the whole episode. However, I will not fight my own people, but the battle against fascist BJP regime will continue,” said Rathore adding that his objective was to further the agenda of the high command.
