Embroiled in allegations of quid pro quo and not finding much favour from the Congress High Command, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Thursday, flexed his muscles and practically held a show of strength in an indirect indication to party higher ups, about the support he commands in the Himachal Congress legislature party.
The apparent show of strength by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh comes a day before the special session of AICC and Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Delhi. “The apparent show of solidarity was likely to thwart any attempt to change guard in the State by the party High Command,” said a senior party leader requesting anonymity.
After filing three defamation suits against leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his two sons Anurag Thakur and Arun Dhumal in the court of CJM, the chief minister held a show of strength on the pretext of briefing media about the cases he filed.
A makeshift tent was erected and nearly 50 chairs were put in place on the stage as OB vans were called for live telecast since early morning at his official residence, apparently to send direct message to the central leadership.
Virbhadra Singh started his briefing with ten out of eight Cabinet Ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries seated alongside him. Health minister Kaul Singh Thakur and rural development minister Anil Sharma were however absent from the rare show of strength.
Rest of the chairs were filled by the loyalists of the Chief Minister, those have been made chairmen and vice chairmen of different boards and corporations. Most of them had lost the Assembly elections like Gangu Ram Musafir, Ram lal Thakur and Subhash Manglate.
To ensure presence of all Cabinet Ministers in the State capital, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had strategically kept a cabinet meet and according to sources, Singh himself called all the Congress MlAs, CPS and ministers to ensure their presence at the press briefing.
Strangely, just after reading out the already prepared note on defamation suits to the media, Chief Minister said he will not take any questions from the press and hastily moved out with the Cabinet Ministers to attend the scheduled cabinet meet after, which he was to go to Delhi to attend the special session of AICC
After serious charges of quid pro quo to a power company were leveled by Opposition, Chief Minister had failed to get an audience with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi while his detractor Kaul Singh Thakur has even met Congress president in a one to one meeting.
Since the allegations hit the national scene in last week of December, Virbhadra Singh had tried twice to get the audience of Congress President and vice president but till now he has not succeeded in his attempt to clarify the allegations. However, State in-charge and AICC general secretary Ambika Soni had clarified that chief minister enjoys full support of Congress high command.
It is to be noted that during Assembly elections in the state, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had held a similar show of strength at Delhi and had even threatened to break the party and join Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which practically forced the high command to declare him as the chief ministerial candidate of the party by making him the PCC president.