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Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: Finally, it is official. After all the hectic lobbying, four time MLA Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, 58 has been named as the new Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. Mukesh Agnihotri will be the Deputy CM.
The names of Chief Minister and his deputy was announced soon after the end of the meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) party in Shimla.
According to a report, son of a road transport corporation driver, SS Sukhu had a modest beginning and used to run a milk counter at Chhota Shimla in his early days.
The Nadaun MLA, who is considered close to Rahul Gandhi and was the Congress campaign committee head, was unanimously elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge cleared Suku’s name and after the CLP meeting, party observer and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel announced the names of CM and his deputy. They will be sworn in on December 11.
Meanwhile the supporters of State party president Pratibha Singh have been protesting through out the day outside the Cecil Hotel in Shimla where the party observers Baghel and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were staying as she has vehemently opposed to Sukhu being made the CM and had conveyed her displeasure but finally she relented.
From the morning itself Congress MLAs made a beeline to the hotel and met the observers. Many state party leaders including Pratibha Singh and leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly Mukesh Agnihotri besides Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu met the observers individually.
Sources said that the party observers and high command were not in favour of Pratibha to be CM as they were averse to facing a by-poll from Mandi Lok Sabha seat in case Pratibha is made CM and later an assembly by election to get her elected as an MLA and then she reportedly bargained for the post of deputy chief minister for her son Vikramaditya Singh who had won from the Shimla (Rural) constituency for the second time.
Sukhu is MLA from Nadaun in Hamirpur district and he had the support of a majority of the legislators.
This is for the second time that Hamirpur district has got a Chief Ministe as former BJP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had lost the elections in 2017 came from the Sujanpur seat.
According to a report, son of a road transport corporation driver, SS Sukhu, 58, had a modest beginning and used to run a milk counter at Chhota Shimla in his early days.
A product of student politics, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu was a known detractor of party veteran Virbhadra Singh who had dominated Himachal Pradesh politics for over five decades until his demise last year. With the party bagging its first victory in the hill state without the charismatic presence of Virbhadra Singh, Sukhu’s elevation makes it clear that the party is ready to move on.
More so, the party did not give in to the strong claim to the post mounted by Pratibha Singh, the party’s state unit chief and wife of Virbhadra Singh.
He won the assembly election for the first time in 2003 from Nadaun, retained the seat in 2007 but was defeated in 2012 and won again in 2017 and 2022.ALSO READ | How a battered and bruised Congress found love in Shimla
(With inputs from PTI)
CHANDIGARH: Finally, it is official. After all the hectic lobbying, four time MLA Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, 58 has been named as the new Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. Mukesh Agnihotri will be the Deputy CM.
The names of Chief Minister and his deputy was announced soon after the end of the meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) party in Shimla.
According to a report, son of a road transport corporation driver, SS Sukhu had a modest beginning and used to run a milk counter at Chhota Shimla in his early days.
The Nadaun MLA, who is considered close to Rahul Gandhi and was the Congress campaign committee head, was unanimously elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge cleared Suku’s name and after the CLP meeting, party observer and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel announced the names of CM and his deputy. They will be sworn in on December 11.
Meanwhile the supporters of State party president Pratibha Singh have been protesting through out the day outside the Cecil Hotel in Shimla where the party observers Baghel and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were staying as she has vehemently opposed to Sukhu being made the CM and had conveyed her displeasure but finally she relented.
From the morning itself Congress MLAs made a beeline to the hotel and met the observers. Many state party leaders including Pratibha Singh and leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly Mukesh Agnihotri besides Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu met the observers individually.
Sources said that the party observers and high command were not in favour of Pratibha to be CM as they were averse to facing a by-poll from Mandi Lok Sabha seat in case Pratibha is made CM and later an assembly by election to get her elected as an MLA and then she reportedly bargained for the post of deputy chief minister for her son Vikramaditya Singh who had won from the Shimla (Rural) constituency for the second time.
Sukhu is MLA from Nadaun in Hamirpur district and he had the support of a majority of the legislators.
This is for the second time that Hamirpur district has got a Chief Ministe as former BJP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had lost the elections in 2017 came from the Sujanpur seat.
According to a report, son of a road transport corporation driver, SS Sukhu, 58, had a modest beginning and used to run a milk counter at Chhota Shimla in his early days.
A product of student politics, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu was a known detractor of party veteran Virbhadra Singh who had dominated Himachal Pradesh politics for over five decades until his demise last year. With the party bagging its first victory in the hill state without the charismatic presence of Virbhadra Singh, Sukhu’s elevation makes it clear that the party is ready to move on.
More so, the party did not give in to the strong claim to the post mounted by Pratibha Singh, the party’s state unit chief and wife of Virbhadra Singh.
He won the assembly election for the first time in 2003 from Nadaun, retained the seat in 2007 but was defeated in 2012 and won again in 2017 and 2022.ALSO READ | How a battered and bruised Congress found love in Shimla
(With inputs from PTI)
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