Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh on Wednesday said that he is pausing his resignation as Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu refused to accept it, PTI reported.
Tensions within the Congress government in the state came to the fore after its candidate Abhishek Singhvi lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Harsh Mahajan on Tuesday in the elections for the lone Rajya Sabha seat that was up for grabs, amid cross-voting by six party MLAs.
Senior Congress leaders, including Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, were sent to the hill state on Wednesday to address the concerns of party MLAs.
After meeting with Congress’ central observers, Vikramaditya Singh told reporters that he is pausing his resignation in the larger interest and unity of the party.
“The organisation is bigger than the individual,” the state public works minister told reporters. “To strengthen the organisation is the responsibility of every individual.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Vikramaditya Singh had offered to resign as the state minister, alleging that the Sukhu government had overlooked its own MLAs.
Singh told reporters that the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls had been fought in the name of his late father Virbhadra Singh, but had failed to decide on a location of a statue of the former chief minister.
“There was no poster or hoarding or banner which did not carry his [Virbhadra Singh’s] picture,” he said. “There was a full-page ad with his picture in the newspapers a day before voting. But after the victory, when the matter of installing the former chief minister’s statue came up the government failed to decide the location.”
“It is not a political but an emotional thing for a son,” Vikramaditya Singh said.
Earlier in the day, Sukhu had said that Vikramaditya Singh is like his younger brother to him, ANI reported.
Meanwhile, Sukhu clarified on Wednesday that he would not resign as the chief minister.
The state government proved its majority in the Assembly with the passing of the state’s Budget for the financial year 2024-’25. But this came after the Speaker suspended 15 BJP MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur, from the House.
The political crisis began after the BJP won the Rajya Sabha polls in the state on Tuesday.
In the 68-member Assembly, the Congress has 40 MLAs. While the BJP has 25 MLAs, three members are independent. But the Rajya Sabha election resulted in a tie with both candidates securing 34 votes.
This indicated that the six Congress MLAs had voted against their party’s candidate. Mahajan was then declared the winner based on a draw of lots, as per the procedure.
Sukhu told reporters on Wednesday that the Congress MLAs who cross-voted should not have disrespected the party.
“They may be upset with me, but a person like Abhishek Singhvi should have gone to the Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh, but they did not vote for him and betrayed the party,” he said. “This has never happened before in the history of state politics.”
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