Party workers should be suitably rewarded for hard work: Himachal Congress chief

Rampur: There are no differences between the Congress government and the party in Himachal Pradesh but many tasks have not been completed yet and party workers should be suitably rewarded for their hard work, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh said on Sunday.

Already in the election mode, Singh has been touring her Mandi Lok Sabha constituency. On Sunday, she interacted with people in Rampur assembly segment of Shimla district under her parliamentary seat.

She told reporters that the Congress high command is getting a survey conducted by an independent agency to assess the winnability of candidates and the party "is also working on the same lines".

Asked whether she would contest from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat if given a ticket, she said, "I have already toured the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency keeping in view the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and spoken to the voters regarding the issues besides taking feedback from them." "I visited the hard snowbound areas of Pangi, Bharmour in Chamba district and Lahaul and Spiti beforehand as these areas become inaccessible during the winters and held meetings and discussions with the people on poll issues," she added.

Mandi is the lone Lok sabha seat held by the Congress while the other three seats of Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra are with the BJP.

There are no differences between the government and the Congress organisation, but after the formation of the Congress government in the state, there are many tasks that have not been completed yet, said Singh, who had lost out in the race for chief ministership in 2022 after the high command handpicked Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

"The party workers who have selflessly worked day and night for the party should be suitably rewarded and accommodated," she said and added that the issues have been raised with the chief minister several times.

"We would continue to raise the voice of the party workers," she said.

Singh, wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, had defeated BJP's Khushal Thakur, a Kargil war hero, by a margin of 7,490 votes on the home turf of the then chief minister Jai Ram Thakur in November 2021.

Virbhadra Singh had died in July 2021 at the age of 87.

The by-elections were held following the death of sitting BJP MP Ramswroop Sharma.