After winning a majority in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh made a bid for the chief ministership in the name of her late husband Virbhadra Singh, the six-time chief minister who died last year.
“MLAs will choose their leader, and the decision will be conveyed to the party’s top command. I’m not saying I’m running for CM, but we won this poll in name of the late Virbhadra Singh. You cannot neglect him and his family,” Pratibha Virbhadra Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
MLAs will choose their leader, the decision will be informed to party’s high command. I’m not saying that I’m in the race for CM but we’ve won this poll in the name of late Virbhadra Singh. You can’t neglect him & his family: Himachal Congress President, Pratibha Virbhadra Singh pic.twitter.com/5qe73LnZ4L
— ANI (@ANI) December 8, 2022
Pratibha Singh did not run in the assembly election and is not an MLA, although she campaigned actively across the state. Singh is now the Mandi MP, having won a byelection in the home district of outgoing Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.
She also carries on the heritage of previous Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who led the Congress in the state for nearly four decades.
Singh enjoys the support of a majority of MLAs who owed their allegiance to Virbhadra Singh, the Congress’ uncontested leader in the hill state for a long time, PTI reported citing some party sources.
When the Congress appeared to be on the verge of a narrow victory, there was talk of moving MLAs to a Congress-ruled state, or at the very least to neighbouring Chandigarh, to better combat the BJP’s poaching tactics.
The MLAs will convene tomorrow in the Himachal capital of Shimla, where the party enjoys a substantial lead over the BJP, with 40 seats in the 68-member House to the BJP’s 25.
The Independents gained three seats, while the AAP was unable to establish a presence in the state, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Congress was only slightly ahead of the BJP in terms of vote share, with 43.88 percent of the vote. The BJP came in second place, with 42.99 percent of the total votes cast.
The Congress’ election victory was the latest example of Himachal upholding its time-honored habit of voting for the incumbent.
Who Are The Congress CM Contenders In Himachal
Pratibha Singh’s son Vikramaditya has been elected as an MLA from Shimla rural and is also a candidate for the top job, despite the fact that many consider him too young.
Aside from Virbhadra Singh’s wife or son, two other contenders have yet to make an outward move: current Opposition Leader Sukhvinder Sukhu and veteran leader Mukesh Agnihotri.
This factionalism was one of the reasons the party feared the BJP’s “Operation Lotus,” code for PM Narendra Modi’s party convincing MLAs to swap sides in order to destabilise the governments of Opposition parties. This happened to the Congress not long ago in Madhya Pradesh.
Former PCC chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore, who won from Theog in a multi-cornered election, is also a CM candidate, claiming to have brought the party’s factions together in recent years.
Rathore was replaced as head of the Himachal unit a few months ago by Pratibha Singh. Interestingly, some Congress leaders ran for office in the hopes of becoming the party’s chief ministerial face. This even assisted them in gaining sufficient support in their respective constituencies.
During the campaign, Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders slammed the Congress for their chief minister-hopefuls.
(With Inputs From Agencies)