Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday virtually declared his successor — his son and president of State Youth Congress, Vikrmaditya Singh. The Chief Minister proposed him as the next probable candidate for Assembly elections from his constituency of Shimla Rural.
The CM is the sitting MlA from Shimla Rural and wants to hand over the seat to his son for a smooth induction in the Congress politics of the State. Vikramaditya is being groomed for a while as the CM has been taking him along on official tours. In the 2013 Assembly polls, Vikramaditya was less than 25 years of age and could not contest the polls.
Addressing a gathering comprising of the employees of Shimla Rural Assembly segment and the party office-bearers here, Virbhadra Singh said he wishes to contest from a seat which the Congress had never won.
“I have got plenty of love from the people of the Shimla Rural, as I got from my own traditional home constituency,” said Virbhadra Singh. He said the people should not think that he was leaving Shimla Rural Assembly constituency, instead he would continue to give equal attention to this constituency as well.
Shimla Rural has seen much development in these last four years, he said. listing the development of his Assembly segment the Chief Minister said that apart from law University, a Fine Arts College including a College at 16 mile near Ghannahatti was coming up. In addition to this, `105 crore Gharog-Ghandal water supply scheme would be completed in this fiscal, which would benefit as many as 41 Panchayats of the region. Besides, a world class shooting range at Dudhalti was also coming up which would facilitate national and international level competitions and training camps.
The Chief Minister said more than 37 schools were either opened or upgraded in the constituency and three Industrial Training Institutes have been opened, health services strengthened as more than eight Primary Health Centres have either been opened or upgraded, with upgraded 50 bed hospital at Sunni.