By Rahil Nora Chopra
In a stunning shock for the Congress, as Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha election despite a 43-25 arithmetical supremacy over the BJP. The BJP’s win was a reflection of cross-voting by Congress MLAs and a draw of lots that went in its favour. The rift between supporters of the late leader Virbhadra Singh’s family and those aligned with CM Sukhu has laid bare the internal strife plaguing the party, paving the way for opportunistic manoeuvres by the opposition. Adding to Congress’ woes, Vikramaditya Singh, also announced his resignation from the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu cabinet, but the central leadership managed to pacify him. However, some Congress state leaders are asking: “The growing threat of dissent in Himachal was known to everybody. What was the in-charge (Rajeev Shukla) doing?” Congress had managed the first challenge of passing the budget in the Assembly on Wednesday by suspending 15 BJP MLAs for creating a ruckus. On the other hand, six Congress MLAs were disqualified on February 29 and they cease to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly with immediate effect. In Shimla, Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Pathania said the six Congress MLAs, including Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Kutlehar MLA Davinder Bhutto, have defied the party whip issued during the Budget session, and hence attracted the provision under the anti-defection law. According to sources, the Congress high command was not happy with Sukhu’s handling of the Rajya Sabha elections and a proposal was floated to replace Sukhu with Mukesh Agnihotri, with Vikramaditya Singh as his deputy.
