Unable to broker peace with rebels, Congress places its bets on Sukhu

The possibility of a rapprochement between the Congress and its six disqualified legislators, who were instrumental in the defeat of Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, appears unlikely. With the rebel leaders moving the Supreme Court, challenging their disqualification as legislators of the Himachal assembly, the Congress has indicated that it is no longer eager to pacify them and would rather firmly back Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, against whom the six had launched an offensive.

The party, on Wednesday (March 6), sacked Sudhir Sharma, one of the six disqualified MLAs, from his post of AICC secretary (in charge of Jammu & Kashmir). Sharma, a former four-term MLA from Dharamshala, took a swipe at the party on social media platform X, saying the sacking suggested “as if the entire burden of the party rested only on my shoulders”.

That the rebels, who have been lodged at a five-star hotel in Panchkula near Chandigarh since February 28, had no intention of retreating from their position either became clear when sacked Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana resigned as the working president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress unit moments after the party relieved Sharma.

Standoff continues

The stance taken by Sharma and Rana suggests that they, along with the other four disqualified MLAs — Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Davinder Bhutto and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal — plan to escalate their attacks against the party in the coming days. Barring Thakur, who, thus far, was the lone member of the rebel brigade to publicly declare that he was “with the BJP, not Congress”, the other former MLAs had maintained all along that their grievance was with Sukhu and not the Congress party or its high command.

Meanwhile, Sukhu, who has been addressing multiple public functions across Himachal since the Congress’s internal crisis began, has kept up the heat on the rebels, likening them to “prisoners” who have “not been able to step out of their hotel in Panchkula for the past seven days and can’t even return to Himachal Pradesh” during a public rally in Hamirpur on Wednesday. A close aide of the CM told The Federal that Sukhu had been given the go-ahead by the party high command to “not yield an inch” to the rebels but, at the same time, “ensure that more MLAs do not have reason to complain and join the revolt”.

Watch on Pratibha, Vikramaditya

Congress insiders said the party is also keeping a close tab on the activities and statements of Himachal Congress chief Pratibha Singh and her minister son, Vikramaditya Singh, who had both launched a blistering tirade against Sukhu soon after Singhvi’s shock defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls. The party’s observers rushed to Shimla by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in the wake of the revolt by the six MLAs had held long deliberations with Pratibha and Vikramaditya, subsequent to which it was decided that a six-member committee would be set up to ensure better coordination between the party and its government.

The mother-son duo had kept the party on the edge even after the assurance of a coordination committee. Both Pratibha and Vikramaditya had pinned the blame of Singhvi’s defeat squarely on Sukhu, continuing to assert even after their discussions with the observers that the CM had failed to keep the party united because of his functioning style.

Pratibha had also backed Vikramaditya’s accusation that the CM had been sitting on the request of granting land at Shimla’s Ridge Grounds for installing a statue of her husband, the late Congress stalwart and former six-term Himachal CM, Virbhadra Singh. Sukhu had denied the allegation, asserting that “no such proposal was ever made formally” by Vikramaditya but said that his government has “no problem allotting suitable land for a statue of Virbhadra Singh, who was a tall and respected leader of our party”.

Demand for statues

The CM’s statement, however, has triggered another complication for the party, with Sukhu’s Cabinet colleague and Jubbal-Kotkhai MLA Rohit Thakur demanding that “if a statue of Virbhadra Singh is being installed, I would request that a statue of Thakur Ram Lal should also be installed”. Rohit Thakur is the grandson of the late Thakur Ram Lal, who had preceded Virbhadra Singh as Himachal CM.

Amid rumours that Virbhadra’s wife and son may be preparing grounds to switch to the BJP — a speculation that both refused to quash categorically — Vikramaditya had visited the rebel MLAs in Panchkula over the past weekend before heading to Delhi where he is learnt to have met Congress general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal. The scion of Himachal’s Bushahr royal family told The Federal that he had “informed the high command of our point of view on issues concerning Himachal Pradesh and our government” but refused to divulge any further details.

Vikramaditya as mediator

On Wednesday, Vikramaditya told reporters in Shimla that he had “been given the task of talking to the rebels” by the party leadership and that after doing so over the past weekend, he had “informed the six MLAs what the high command told [him] to convey and the high command what these six leaders had to say”. He refused to disclose what those discussions were. However, hinting that the last act of the still-evolving crisis had not played out yet, Vikramaditya said, “The ball is in the court of the high command now; I have done what I was officially tasked to do and now how things play out have to be decided by the high command and the party.”

The Shimla Rural legislator refused to comment on the petitions moved by the six rebels before the Supreme Court challenging their disqualification from the Himachal Assembly under provisions of the anti-defection law. The PWD minister also evaded queries on whether his grievances against Sukhu had been addressed or if the high command had rejected all possibility of changing the CM.

“Whatever I had to tell the high command, I have said... I do not hold back what is in my mind and I also know how to get done whatever I want,” he said. However, brusquely dismissing questions about his possible defection to the BJP, Vikramaditya said, “Chandu khane ki khabron par naa jaayein (don’t believe news coming from gossip rooms), talk to me only on things that can be substantiated and are based on facts... I am not bound to respond to anything else.”

Revamp of Sukhu’s Cabinet?

Congress sources said that though Pratibha and Vikramaditya have assured the high command that they “will not desert the party”, the duo has strongly put forth their demand to “rein in Sukhu” and ensure that the CM is not dismissive of suggestions and requests that come from the Pratibha Singh camp.

Party insiders said the possibility of a revamp of Sukhu’s Cabinet was being “looked into” and could take place once there is clarity from the Supreme Court on which way the petition moved by the rebel leaders is headed. The Cabinet reshuffle could accommodate some faces from the Pratibha camp but Congress sources say the revamp would be a tough balancing act for Sukhu to achieve since the hill state has a small council of ministers and neither he nor the high command would wish to cede too much ground to one of the two rival party factions.

Push to welfare schemes

In the meantime, it is learnt that the Congress high command has instructed Sukhu and Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, who had also met Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi over the weekend, to expedite the Cabinet nod for a slew of populist schemes, including the poll promises made by the party during the 2022 Assembly polls. A meeting of the Sukhu Cabinet has been called on Thursday (March 7) to approve, among others, the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojna, under which over five lakh women of Himachal, in the age group of 18 and 60 years, will be provided a monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,500 by the state government.

The Congress hopes that a brisk roll-out of welfare schemes and big-ticket infrastructure projects would help the party tide over any negative public perception that Singhvi’s defeat and the rebellion by the six disqualified MLAs has triggered against the Sukhu government in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.