“Kitna hai bad-naseeb ‘Zafar’ dafn ke liye, do gaz zameen bhi na mili kuch-e-yaar fundamental (How wretched is your destiny, Zafar! That you just could not get two meagre yards of land on your last resting place),” Congress MLA Vikramaditya Singh quoted a couplet by Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar to hit out on the Sukhvinder Sukhu-led authorities for “humiliating” his father and six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Vikramaditya Singh resigned as minister within the Sukhu-led Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.
This comes a day after six MLAs cut off ties with the government, plunging the federal government into disaster.
Himachal Pradesh is among the three states the place the Congress is in energy by itself. If the Congress loses Himachal, it can grow to be a south-based get together, as the 2 different states with it are Karnataka and Telangana.
The developments in Himachal Pradesh point out that whereas the Congress may need quelled the rebel in 2022 by selecting Sukhvinder Sukhu as an alternative of Virbhadra Singh’s widow Pratibha Singh, to guide the federal government, the late former chief minister, or his absence, nonetheless continues to “hang-out” the get together.
Virbhadra Singh, a six-time chief minister and a three-time Union minister, was the Congress’s nerve centre of energy in Himachal Pradesh for nearly six a long time. Because the Nineteen Eighties, Virbhadra Singh was a central determine within the Congress and stored the flock collectively amid Himachal Pradesh’s revolving-door politics.
Nonetheless, after Singh handed away on July 8, 2021, the Congress was riddled with factionalism and noticed the emergence of two camps led by Sukhvinder Sukhu, a recognized detractor of Virbhadra Singh, and Pratibha Singh.
VIRBHADRA SINGH’S STATUE A BONE OF CONTENTION
With the destiny of the Congress authorities hanging in stability, Vikramaditya Singh selected an apt time to remind the get together that Virbhadra’s household can’t be ignored and the way his legacy had contributed to the get together’s victory within the 2022 Meeting polls.
On the coronary heart of Vikramaditya Singh’s emotional outburst is the controversy over the state authorities’s refusal to offer a no-objection certificates (NOC) to put in a statue of Virbhadra Singh at Shimla’s widespread Ridge Street.
“Somebody who was the CM of the state for six occasions, attributable to whom this authorities was fashioned within the state… they might not discover a small area for his statue at Mall Street. That is the respect this authorities has proven to my late father. We’re emotional individuals, we have now nothing to do with posts… However that is very unlucky… I’m very harm, not politically however emotionally,” Vikramaditya Singh stated.
The Shimla Rural MLA reminded the Congress excessive command that the 2022 Meeting election was fought within the title of Virbhadra Singh.
“There was no poster, or hoarding or banner which didn’t carry his image. There was a full-page advert along with his image within the newspapers a day earlier than voting,” he stated.
The statue of Virbhadra Singh was presupposed to be put in at Ridge Street, subsequent to the Mall, on July 23, 2023, on the event of the previous CM’s beginning anniversary.
The Ridge Street is the most well-liked vacationer spot in Shimla and homes statues of distinguished leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the primary CM of Himachal Pradesh, Yashwant Singh Parmar.
Nonetheless, an NOC was not obtained for the set up of Virbhadra’s statue final yr, and it will definitely got here up at Sainj, about 100 km away from Shimla.
Apparently, the statue was inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and the Chief Minister Sukhu stayed away from the occasion.
SUKHVINDER SUKHU GOVT ACCUSED OF ‘NEGLECT’
In actual fact, all through the one-year tenure of the Sukhvinder Sukhu authorities, the chorus of Virbhadra Singh’s household being uncared for has made it to the headlines often.
It began within the aftermath of the Congress’s win within the 2022 Himachal Pradesh polls, the place the get together stormed to energy after profitable 40 of the state’s 68 seats.
State Congress chief Pratibha Singh was the frontrunner to take over because the chief minister, however the get together management handed the reins to Sukhvinder Sukhu amid big protests by supporters of the late CM’s spouse exterior the Meeting.
The elevation of Sukhu, the son of a state transport company driver, was symbolic in some ways. It was seen because the Congress brass’ ploy to reinvent itself by transferring past Virbhadra Singh’s period and defend itself towards the BJP’s ‘dynasty politics’ cost, as Sukhu doesn’t belong to any political household.
Regardless of biting the bullet, Virbhadra Singh’s household has let its displeasure recognized publicly about being “sidelined” by the Sukhu authorities.
In Could 2023, throughout her go to to Anni constituency in Kullu district, Pratibha Singh stated that “some individuals” had been attempting to demolish the legacy of her late husband.
Two months later, she met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and expressed her displeasure at not being consulted by the Chief Minister on Cupboard enlargement and appointments to boards and companies.
She additionally flagged the problem of lack of coordination between get together employees and the federal government.
Months later, in a Cupboard rejig, the sports activities and youth providers division was taken away from Vikramaditya Singh, who had expressed his unhappiness on the transfer. He was given the City Growth division.
Whereas it has been three years for the reason that passing away of Virbhadra Singh, it appears the shadow of the previous CM nonetheless looms massive within the energy play throughout the Himachal Pradesh Congress unit. And the previous chief minister and his legacy may return to hang-out the Congress.
