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Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu: Student leader who rose up the ranks to helm hill state
A student leader who gradually emerged through the ranks from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Saturday was chosen as leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Himachal Pradesh, paving the way for his elevation as the new chief minister.
A student leader who gradually emerged through the ranks from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Saturday was chosen as leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Himachal Pradesh, paving the way for his elevation as the new chief minister.
The 58-year-old will be the first Congress chief minister in Himachal from the lower part of the state.
A law graduate and a four-time MLA from Nadaun, Sukhu sold milk in Chhota Shimla in his early days. He was born on March 27, 1964 in Sera village of Nadaun tehsil in Hamirpur district. Sukhu’s father Raseel Singh worked as a driver in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation in Shimla. His mother, Mata Sansar Devi, is a homemaker.
While in Government College, Sanjauli, he served as general secretary and later the president of the students’ union in 1984-85. His first tryst with electoral politics began in 1989, when he was appointed the state president of the NSUI and remained in the post till 1995.
He won two consecutive elections as councillor of Shimla Municipal Corporation and served as a representative of the civic body until 1998.
Sukhu also served as the state general secretary of the Youth Congress from 1995 to 1998 and was elevated as the president of the state Youth Congress in 1998. He served in the post till 2008 and was the longest-serving president.
Congress state general secretary and newly-elected MLA from Shahpur constituency, Kewal Singh Pathania, said: “It is an honour for people like me to have worked with Sukhu during his days as NSUI president and later in the Youth Congress also.”
The Congress leader entered the state assembly in 2003 after he won the election from Nadaun segment of Hamirpur district. While he retained the seat in 2007, in 2012, he lost it to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vijay Agnihotri in a close contest.
In January 2013, the Congress appointed him as the acting president of the state unit and by April, a full-time president. He served two consecutive terms, till 2019, before being replaced by Kuldeep Singh Rathore.
Sukhu was a known detractor of Congress stalwart and former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who dominated the state politics for five decades, till his demise last year, and served in the top post six times (between 1983 and 2017).
The two leaders shared a strained relationship throughout the Congress government’s tenure in the state and thereafter. The old rivalry came to the fore recently after the Congress wrested power from the BJP, as both Sukhu and Singh’s wife, Pratibha, tried to stake claim to the chief minister’s post.
Sukhu is considered close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He will be the first Congress chief minister from merged Himachal, also called lower Himachal, that comprises Kangra, Bilaspur, Una and Hamirpur districts.
Kangra district was merged with Himachal Pradesh in 1966 and Una and Hamirpur were carved out of Kangra in 1972.
Sukhu married Kamlesh Kumari in 1988 and the couple has two daughters who are studying in Delhi University.
Assistant professor of political science at Government College Sihunta, Priyabhishek Sharma, said: “Hailing from a non-political background and starting as a student leader, he has an experience in serving in different organisational posts, including the state party chief.”
Sharma said in a party accused of ignoring young talent, appointing Sukhu as chief minister will give a clear message that the Congress is not afraid of taking tough decisions.
“Though it is a tough job saddled by enormous expectations and engraved by terrible financial legacy, a good leader becomes great only when the time is testing,” he added.
