Shimla: At the time when State Minister Vikramaditya Singh quit as minister two days before the swearing-in ceremony, on Monday, to add to the Congress’s problems in Himachal Pradesh, the son of the late Virbhadra Singh accused Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of disrespecting the hill state’s tallest leader and not giving importance to its MLAs.
This comes in the backdrop of dramatic developments in Himachal Pradesh over the past 24 hours, wherein an election for a lone Rajya Sabha seat now mirrors a Congress government’s fight for survival. The party, which has 40 MLAs in the 68-member Assembly, has now rushed senior leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and D K Shivakumar to Himachal for damage control.
Addressing the media, Mr Singh said the developments in the hill state are a cause for concern. “We need to go into the background and see what led to this situation. I would like to rewind your memory. The 2022 Assembly elections were fought and won under the collective leadership of then Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh and campaign committee head and current Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. There is no doubt that the polls were fought in the name of former Chief Minister, late Virbhadra Singh. There was no banner or poster that did not have his photo. A day before the polls, a full-page newspaper ad had his photo with the message, ‘Remember me, vote in my name’. This is a matter of record,” he said.
It was the then-State Congress chief, and Ms. Singh’s mother Pratibha, and she had been seen as a front runner for the Chief Minister post before the Congress leadership chose Mr. Sukhu.
“In the past one year, I have not spoken a word on the government’s functioning. But it is my responsibility to the people to speak out now. The post is not important for me. What is important is my relationship with the people of Himachal Pradesh, a relationship of trust,” he said.
“The way government has functioned, the negligence towards MLAs, drowning of their voice etc, etc – which has put us in this situation,” he said.
He has criticized how the Congress government worked, and, in fact, the way it put the fiscal management off track. “We took up this matter again and again with the party high command, but they never responded to it as it should have been done. I always feel and stand for calling a spade a spade. We raised it at multiple forums, but since I am a disciplined party worker, I know where to draw the line,” he further said.
Mr. Singh said that Jammu and Kashmir’s youth had their hopes behind the Congress. “But are we in a position to deliver those promises to the state youth? This is a question to ponder,” he said.
Accusing the government of the state for disrespecting his father, Virbhadra Singh said, “they didn’t even find a landpiece for putting up his statue on Mall Road”. On whose name we formed the government, now that is the respect this government showed to my late father,” he said, holding back tears.
The government, which enjoyed a comfortable majority till yesterday, faces a crisis today after six Congress MLAs cross-voted in the contest for the lone Rajya Sabha seat yesterday. The rebel Congress MLAs were whisked away to Haryana on Wednesday, and the BJP today claimed that the ruling party had lost the mandate to continue in power.
Their cross was single-checking through BJP-ruled Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha election after a tie, then a draw of lots sealed fate of Congress pick and senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi.
