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<\/div>\nSonia Gandhi chairing a recent meeting of the Congress steering committee. (File)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Shimla: <\/b><\/p>\n
After a day of drama over who’ll be the chief minister, the Congress MLAs in Himachal Pradesh this evening passed the party’s traditional one-line resolution, authorising the “high command” to take a decision.<\/p>\n
That essentially means Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, besides Priyanka Gandhi who campaigned aggressively in Himachal along with new national president Mallikarjun Kharge. The MLAs’ meeting was held with central leaders\u00a0Rajeev Shukla, Bhupinder Hooda and Bhupesh Baghel present to coordinate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The one-line resolution came after a show of strength by the supporters of state Congress chief Pratibha Singh ahead of the meeting in Shimla, which happens to be her family’s area of dominance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A horde of party workers raised slogans and even blocked Bhupesh Baghel’s car, demanding that Pratibha Singh, a three-time MP and wife of the late leader Virbhadra Singh, an ex-royal, “deserves the top post”.<\/p>\n
In the race besides her are Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Mukesh Agnihotri, both of whom have their pockets of support in areas some distance away from Shimla. Since the meeting today was in Shimla,\u00a0the support for Pratibha Singh grabbed the optics.<\/p>\n
Dark horses such as\u00a0Harshwardhan Chauhan are seen to be in the race, too, but for now the three factions are the story.<\/p>\n
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, a third-time MLA from Nadaun in Hamirpur district, has risen through the ranks from the Congress wing National Student Union of India (NSUI).<\/p>\n
He did say, at least on camera today, that he’s not a claimant.<\/p>\n
But he made a more characteristically straight remark to\u00a0Outlook <\/em><\/a>magazine during the campaign: “Yes, definitely, I too have aspirations to be Chief Minister.”\u00a0In that interview,\u00a0he had said that factionalism in Congress “died with Virbhadra Singh’s death”.<\/p>\n Though from another district in another region of the state, he won the municipal election twice in Shimla, and was made secretary of the state unit in 2008, eventually getting to the top of the state unit. He was replaced as state unit chief in 2019 by Kuldeep Rathore, reportedly in a compromise against factionalism.<\/p>\n After Virbhadra Singh’s death, his wife was made state unit chief early this year — a move attributed to ensuring sympathy vote doesn’t fritter away.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pratibha Singh has referred to that sympathy repeatedly while making a play for the top post. She draws her power and stature from being the wife of the late\u00a0Virbhadra Singh, the royal scion of Rampur-Bushahr near Shimla who was chief minister six times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Supporters draw and emotional connect with the “Rani”, arguing that “votes were sought in Raja sahib’s name”. She and the son, two-time MLA Vikramaditya Singh,\u00a0have also made this point while angling for her to get the chair<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another contender is Mukesh Agnihotri, Leader of Opposition during the now-voted-out BJP government, who has won his fifth assembly election since moving from journalism to politics around two decades ago. He has not said anything yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mukesh Agnihotri is considered a protege of the “royal family”, particularly Virbhadra Singh, but has gradually grown to having his own ambitions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n