Who is Mukesh Agnihotri - Himachal Pradesh deputy chief minister?
Congress leader and four-time MLA Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu will be the new chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.
Mukesh Agnihotri, the leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly, will be the deputy chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, the Congress announced after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Saturday.
Congress leader and four-time MLA Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu will be the new chief minister of the hill state.
The Congress wrested power from the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in Himachal Pradesh winning 40 of the 68 assembly seats. The polling was held on November 12 and the results were declared Thursday.
Things to know about Mukesh Agnihotri:
Mukesh Agnihotri has been serving as the MLA from the Haroli seat, earlier known as Santokgarh since 2003. This has been a Congress bastion.
This time, he was up against Ram Kumar from the BJP and Ravinder Pal Singh Mann of the AAP. Naresh Kumar from BSP was also in the fray.
In the 2017 election, Haroli was one of 21 seats won by the Congress after Agnihotri defeated BJP Ram Kumar Sharma by a margin of 7,377 votes. Agnihotri got a total of 35,095 votes, while Ram Kumar secured 27,718 votes.
In 2018, he was also the chairperson of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee. In the same year, Agnihotri was inducted into the Leader of Opposition of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
Agnihotri began his professional career as a journalist and switched to politics. This is his fifth consecutive election victory.
