Shimla, Aug 31: The Congress reached out to its irate leader and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who has said he will withdraw from the forthcoming state elections if organizational affairs in the state unit did not change. Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel met the Chief Minister this afternoon to discuss the way forward and is learnt to have temporarily pacified the angry regional strongman who is refusing to speak his mind publicly.
It was only in an August 25 closed door meeting of Himachal Congress MLAs that Singh said he would neither contest polls nor lead the party if the present situation persists. He is demanding the replacement of Himachal Congress chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.
Though the ball is now in Sonia Gandhi’s court, The Tribune has learnt Gandhi is not happy with the Chief Minister taking such this extreme position on the issue. Singh, who was also supposed to meet Gandhi today, eventually did not get an appointment amid indications that the Congress leadership will think things through before taking a call on the imbroglio threatening its prospects in the state. Congress sources said the party is in a catch 22 situation on the matter and will first try to get the Chief Minister and Sukhu to work together, with the latter completely honouring the Chief Minister’s stature.
“The CM’s demand to remove Sukhu is clear but replacement of state chief this close to elections may not send a good signal. The issue has to be discussed with maturity. Also on the back of everyone’s mind is the 2012 turn of events when Virbhadra Singh had similarly threatened the party leadership to get then state president Kaul Singh Thakur removed and himself appointed in the position,” a party source said.
Equally Congress leaders acknowledge that Virbhadra Singh is their only leadership alternative in Himachal which is going into elections shortly, and that all MLAs want him to lead the campaign.“It’s a difficult call for the party. Sukhwinder Sukhu may not have mass appeal in Himachal but he has built enough of an organizational base to hamper the party should he be sidelined in a huff. It’s equally true that Virbhadra Singh is our tallest mass leader in Himachal.
A balance needs to be struck,” a leader said.The tussle everyone says is more about power over ticket distribution than anything else. In Congress constitution both the state chief and the sitting Chief Minister have ample say in allocation of tickets to candidates and the CM does not want to go into elections unless given a free hand in choosing winning nominees.
With the CM now digging his heels in on the demand to remove Sukhu, it remains to be seen how long the Congress can continue to back its state chief.Sonia Gandhi might want to wait to for the return of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi from Norway to take this discussion forward considering Sukhu is Rahul Gandhi’s appointee.
Source Tribune India
