The delay in reconstitution of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), even after nearly six months after its dissolution, has kept the Congress workers guessing and hampered the functioning of the Congress organisation in the state.
The HPCC, which was dissolved by the Congress High Command to rope in ‘new blood’ in the organisation, seems to be turning into a fight of one-upmanship between Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh and HPCC President Partibha Singh, wife of six-time former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Though the Congress High Command had allowed Pratibha Singh to continue as HPCC President, HPCC has not been expanded or reconstituted, affecting functioning at a lower level.
The present impasse in the formation of a new HPCC mainly stems from Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu’s hidden desire to get his ‘loyalist’ appointed as HPCC President, which has been dominated by the late Virbhadra Singh Singh’s camp for long, presently headed by his wife Pratibha Singh.
CM Sukhu and Virbhadra Singh, former Congress stalwart of Himachal Pradesh, remained each other’s critics for long, even when Sukhu headed state NSUI and Virbhadra Singh was Chief Minister. When he was appointed HPCC Chief, Virbhadra Singh had pressurised the Central Congress leadership to replace him.
He always had proximity to arch-rivals of Virbhadra Singh, like Vidya Stokes and former Union Minister Sukh Ram, and remained a close confidant of prominent Congress leader Anand Sharma, having strong clout in Congress High Command.
After becoming Chief Minister of the state, CM Sukhu aspired to install his trusted leader to be head of the HPCC and have significant say in the party organisation, with the blessings of Congress High Command.
The names of a few trusted leaders from the CM camp, Arki MLA Sanjay Awasthi, Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh, and Dharampur MLA Chander Shekhar, are doing the rounds to head the HPCC.
Ignoring the Virbhadra Singh family in the reconstitution of HPCC and Congress Committees at the lower level will not be easy, as his legacy still matters a lot in the electoral politics of Himachal Pradesh.
Pratibha Singh’s role in bringing back Congress to power in the state cannot be ignored, since her victory in the 2021 Mandi Parliament by-election , when BJP was in power, had given a new lease of life to the party before the 2022 HP Assembly election.
Pratibha Singh and her supporters ,had been demanding accommodation of more leaders as chairmen and in other posts in the government.
The Congress High Command will try to establish a balance between two groups, with the HP Assembly election due in 2027.
Former HPCC President Kuldeep Rathor stated, “The Congress High Command should grant full authority to the HPCC President to ensure smooth functioning of the party.”
