Two strikingly different pictures emerged 48 hours in the run-up to the Congress choosing the new chief minister of Himachal Pradesh – one was that of boisterous support for state unit president “Rani Sahiba” Pratibha Singh in her claim to the top post and the other of a calm and composed 58-year-old, who knew the numbers were stacked in his favour.
For the Congress high command and its group of leaders, who were ensconced in Shimla ever since the numbers to the legislative assembly started crystallising, it eventually boiled down to number crunching.
Despite a so-called instant claim to the reins of the hill state, it seemed evident that Pratibha Singh lacked the numbers. The defeat of her close aides like Asha Kumari did no good to her cause.
But four-term MLA and now CM-designate Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was meticulously cobbling up the numbers. Even before the central leadership began taking roll calls, Sukhu had already done his homework. He managed to convey to the party top leadership that more than 21 MLAs had put their weight behind him.
Given that the Congress did not want to slip up this time, meetings of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) were not just held once but twice on Friday and Saturday. Sources said with the numbers clearly behind Sukhu, the central leadership sensed that the royalty needed to give way to a leader from humble moorings. Pratibha was then told that the numbers did not favour her.
According to sources, sensing that she was outnumbered, Pratibha threw in her set of demands. “She wanted either her son or her ally Mukesh Agnihotri to be made the deputy chief minister. The high command sought to play safe and accepted this demand,” said a senior leader aware of the developments. As part of the “compromise formula”, however, Pratibha’s son Vikramaditya Singh could possibly find a place in the state cabinet with an important portfolio, sources added.
Sukhu faced opposition from Pratibha as he never saw eye-to-eye with the family of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Known to be a bête noire of the Congress stalwart, it was perhaps Sukhu’s brash attitude that ultimately helped him carve a niche for himself as a plain-speaking man who dared to take on the might of a towering leader.
As the central leadership gave Sukhu its stamp of approval, him belonging to the Rajput caste also helped. Out of the six CMs that Himachal has seen, five are Rajputs except Shanta Kumar. The other Rajput leaders include YS Parmar, Ram Lal Thakur, Virbhadra Singh, PK Dhumal and Jai Ram Thakur.
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