Tussle between Kangra and Shimla stalls cabinet formation in Himachal

New Delhi: The escalated infighting in the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, especially on the number of representatives from Kangra and Shimla districts, is delaying the cabinet formation in the hill state.

Sources claimed that three legislators from Kangra district – Sudhir Sharma (Brahmin), Chander Kumar (Other Backward Class) and Raghuvir Singh Bali (Brahmin) -- are demanding cabinet berths. While Sharma represents Dharamshala, Kumar is a legislator from Jawali and Bali from Nagrota.

Besides these three, Ashish Butail, a two-time legislator from Palampur, has also thrown his hat in the ring.

However, Butail’s cousin, Gokul Butail, has already been accommodated in the new government as one of the advisors to chief minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, holding the status of a cabinet minister. This could mar his prospects.

A section of Congress leaders has argued that since the party won 12 out of the 17 assembly seats in the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency, there should be four representatives from the region.

From Shimla district, former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh, Rohit Thakur, grandson of another former chief minister Ram Lal Thakur, three-time legislator Anirudh Singh and former Himachal Pradesh Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore are the contenders for cabinet berths.

While Vikramaditya Singh is a legislator from Shimla Rural, Thakur represents Jubbal-Kotkhai, Anirudh Singh is a legislator from Kasumpti and Rathore from Theog.

However, Vikramaditya Singh and his mother and present Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh have been summoned by a Rajasthan court on connection with a domestic violence case. Vikramaditya Singh's estranged wife Sudarshana Singh Chundawat had filed the domestic violence and harassment case in a court at Udaipur in Rajasthan on October 17. She has also demanded maintenance from her husband. The next dates of the hearing are January 13 and January 20.

According to some Congress leaders, any move to induct Vikramaditya Singh into the cabinet is bound to give a handle to the opposition to attack the ruling party. Hence, the Congress high command might tread carefully on the issue and delay his induction for some time.

But his loyalists alleged that it was a deliberate move on the part of Vikramaditya Singh's political rivals within and outside the Congress to stall his entry into the new government.

Himachal Pradesh has a 68-member assembly and the cabinet can have only 12 members, including the chief minister. With former Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri having been made the deputy chief minister, only 10 cabinet berths are available now.

While the Congress leadership is considering giving five cabinet berths to the Shimla parliamentary constituency, from where the party won 13 out of the 17 segments, the high command is keen on appointing just two ministers from the Kangra Lok Sabha seat. Congress party's Himachal Pradesh in-charge Rajeev Shukla is pushing for Rajinder Singh Rana's induction from the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency. Rana had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal from Sujanpur in the 2017 assembly polls while won by just 299 votes in the just concluded elections.

However, his chances are bleak as the chief minister is from this district, which is also one of the smallest of the total 12 districts in the hill state. It will be extremely difficult for Sukhu to accommodate Rana in his cabinet.

That said, the delay in the cabinet formation has given a bad start to the new government and given enough ammunition to the political rivals to attack the Congress on factionalism and infighting.