After deliberations with all the stakeholders and the newly elected MLAs, the Congress high command announced the name of Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu as the new Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. Sukhu, who headed the Congress campaign committee in Himachal Pradesh is a multi-term MLA from Nadaun in Hamirpur in the lower hills and has been the president of the State Congress Committee in the past.

Mukesh Agnihotri, the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly, will be the Deputy Chief Minister, the party said after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Shimla.

Sukhu, the 58-year-old MLA, was elected the CLP leader and will take oath as Chief Minister on Sunday, the party said. After a meeting of the CLP in Shimla, it’s second in 24 hours, Congress’s central observer and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel announced the election of Sukhu as the CLP leader.

Addressing the media accompanied by another observer, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and AICC in-charge for Himachal Pradesh Rajeev Shukla, he announced that Agnihotri would be the Deputy Chief Minister.

Soon after, the Congress leadership left for the residence of the Governor to stake claim to form the Government.

The names were finalised by the party leadership following deliberations with the MLAs over two days amid hectic lobbying by aspirants, including State Congress chief Pratibha Singh, the wife of Virbhadra Singh.

In a meeting on Friday evening, the MLAs had unanimously passed a resolution authorising the party president to pick the legislature party leader after the three leaders reached the venue with their supports and raised slogans in their favour.

Sukhu, a former president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, is a four-term MLA and is close to party leader Rahul Gandhi, sources said.  He was known as a detractor of Congress veteran and six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

He cut his teeth in politics as president of the NSUI and Indian Youth Congress in the State and despite hailing from lower hills, fought and won elections for the Shimla Municipal Corporation.

Son of a road transport corporation driver, Sukhu had a modest beginning and used to run a milk counter at Chhota Shimla in his early days.

Rising through the ranks, he was a relentless fighter and remained the party’s State unit president for a record six years from 2013 to 2019 despite being frequently at loggerheads with Virbhadra, a six-time Chief Minister.

He won the Assembly election for the first time in 2003 from Nadaun in Hamirpur district, retained the seat in 2007 but was defeated in 2012 and won again in 2017 and 2022. Sukhu will be the first Congress leader from Lower Himachal -- comprising areas merged in Himachal in 1966 such as Nalagarh, Una, Hamirpur, Kangra and lower hills of Kullu -- to occupy the top post. He will be the second chief minister from Hamirpur district, after BJP’s Prem Kumar Dhumal.

The Congress wrested power from the BJP in the hill State winning 40 of the 68 Assembly seats. The polling was held on November 12 and the results were declared Thursday.

The polling was held on November 12 and the results were declared on Thursday.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge earlier said the party observers sent to the hill State were seeking the views of all party legislators individually and they would convey to him their opinions, based on which the party would take a decision on the chief ministerial candidate.

 Intense lobbying continued for the chief minister’s post on Saturday. From morning itself, Congress MLAs made a beeline to Cecil Hotel in Shimla where the party’s central observers -Baghel and Hooda - and AICC in-charge for Himachal Pradesh Rajeev Shukla have put up.

Several leaders, including State Congress Chief Pratibha Singh, leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Mukesh Agnihotri and head of the election campaign committee Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, met the observers individually.