Destiny seems to be favouring Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, whose position had been threatened after the official party nominee, Abhishek Singhvi lost in a nail-biting contest to his BJP adversary Harsh Mahajan in last month’s Rajya Sabha polls. The outcome of the election was most unexpected and six Rebel Congress MLAs along with three Independents voted against Singhvi leading to a tie which was finally settled through a draw of lots. Soon after the result, knives were out for Sukhu, and his style of functioning came under close scrutiny, with many of his adversaries demanding his removal, in order to save the government.
However, the Congress High Command did not succumb to pressure, and instead decided to give the Chief Minister a lease of life, despite the Pradesh party Chief, Pratibha Singh, and her son, Vikramaditya Singh openly attacking Sukhu on various media platforms. The High Command’s logic was that changing the Chief Minister on the eve of the Parliamentary polls would send a wrong message and embolden others to challenge party decisions in the future. The BJP led by former Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, continued to fish in troubled waters, and has now admitted the six rebels, who were disqualified from the assembly, for defying the whip during the budget session and also three Independents, who need not have resigned, but did so at the behest of the Saffron Brigade.
The consequence of all this is that the overall strength of the House has been reduced to 59 and the Congress has 34 MLAs as against 25 of the BJP. The issue that is going to trouble the BJP now is that it shall have a very difficult task on its hand when it has to deal with fielding candidates for the nine Assembly seats which have fallen vacant. In all these seats, the winners, had defeated BJP nominees. Therefore, the defeated candidates would not want these persons to be given the party nomination and foisted over their heads if they win. Meanwhile Rakesh Kalia, a BJP MLA quit the party on Saturday. Sukhu’s supporters are of the view that the BJP has helped in finishing off factionalism within the Congress as all those who had left were aligned with Pratibha Singh, widow of six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and the tallest leader of the State so far.
The insinuation is that the entire conspiracy to defeat the official Congress nominee in the Rajya Sabha polls, at one level had the backing of this faction, which has been extremely unhappy ever since Sukhu came to power. The effort from day one was to dislodge him, and in a move completely uncharacteristic of any senior leader, Pratibha Singh has been openly critical of the Chief Minister. She has left no opportunity to attack him in the media and held him directly responsible for the Rajya Sabha debacle, without realizing that it was her duty as the State chief to get the nominee elected. Recently, she made a public statement regarding the mood at the ground level which she claimed was not in favour of the Congress. She also stated that she would not contest the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and had conveyed this to the central leadership.
The question that arises is that if the party cadres were unhappy as she claims, was it not her job to ensure that the organization was in a proper mood to take on its BJP adversaries during the impending polls. Secondly, should she be opting out of the Lok Sabha race on her own accord or should the final call on this matter be left to the High Command. Her son, Vikramaditya Singh, who had resigned from the Cabinet after the Rajya Sabha polls, has been also attacking his own government, when the proper thing to do should have been to first fight the rival party before settling internal issues. The developments in this Hill State which sends four Lok Sabha members, are being closely watched by the Congress leadership. Sukhu has got a reprieve and the question of his removal does not arise at this stage. And if he wins the majority of Assembly seats that are going to polls and if the Congress does well in the general elections, he would have survived. The problems for the BJP have begun and factionalism there has been mounting.
Ironically, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Anurag Thakur was asked by the party to admit the rebels that included Rajendra Rana, the man who defeated his father, Prem Kumar Dhumal in the Assembly polls and prevented him from becoming the Chief Minister. Politics does strange things and there are several examples of this being witnessed in this Himalayan State. Within the Congress, a section is wanting the High Command to expel Pratibha Singh for anti-party activities and in the BJP, the joining of rebels has made many senior leaders unhappy.
The buzz is that the BJP has been looking for a good Brahmin face after former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar was elevated to the Marg Darshak Mandal. In this context, it is being speculated that Sudhir Sharma, one of the disqualified Congress MLAs, maybe fielded for the Lok Sabha from Kangra. Sudhir’s father, Pandit Sant Ram was a very respectable and honest Congress leader from the Kangra-Baijnath belt. In Hamirpur, Rajendra Rana will be asked to help Anurag Thakur when the poll process begins. The Congress suffered a setback with Singhvi’s defeat but the BJP does not seem to be in a very happy state after admitting these rebels and Independents.
Pankaj Vohra