Taking a tough stand on indiscipline in the State Congress, AICC general secretary in-charge of Himachal Congress Sushil Kumar Shinde on Thursday snubbed the dissidents and expressed concern over the incident of sloganeering against State party chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu a day before.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Congress President Sukhu on Thursday suspended Vinod Zinta, General Secretary of Youth Congress on charges of indiscipline.
Sukhu, who had skipped meeting with Shinde and co-incharge Ranjeet Ranjan on Wednesday, paid a visit to both the leaders at Peterhoff early in the morning on Thursday. later, Shinde had a meeting with State Congress Executive at Rajiv Bhawan, where he, once again, rebuffed the party workers who tried to raise slogans. Condemning the raising of slogans against HPCC president Sukhu on his arrival, Shinde said that such occurrences were common in party politics and party workers across the country often indulged in such factional politics, however, this happened only in democratic parties. He said that State unit would emerge stronger and all differences would be addressed adequately. He claimed that party would once again win with a majority in the State and retain Government in the State.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Youth Congress Chief Vikramaditya Singh, both expressed their disapproval for sloganeering against senior leaders of the party. Addressing the State executive meet, Virbhadra Singh said that some leaders were trying to create a rift in the organisation but they would not succeed. Training guns against Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, who had recently demanded his resignation after CBI filed charge sheet against him, Virbhadra Singh said that party leaders should not be swayed by such leaders, who try to weaken the organisation for personal gains.
later, talking to media, Sukhu said that indiscipline in the party would not be tolerated and the General Secretary of Youth Congress was served a notice of 15 days besides suspension from the party. He said that the video footage of Wednesday’s function was available and action would be taken against others also, who created a unbecoming scene at Peterhoff on Wednesday.
While the Congress Executive meet concluded in a fairly cool atmosphere. Shinde’s meet with Congress legislative Party in the evening on Thursday was expected to be fiery as the issue of letter written by six MlAs of the party to high command seeking Virbhadra Singh’s removal, was to be taken up in the meeting.
The letter by the MlAs was written after the State Government earned severe public criticism in handling of Kotkhai gang rape and murder case. The MlAs in their letter had demanded a change at the top, before the State went to assembly polls four months from now.
Sukhu, Vijay Singh Mankotia, Transport Minister G.S. Bali, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rohit Thakur and Rajiv Dharmani had publicly condemned the failure of State Government and State police to tackle the Kotkhai gang rape.
Both the warring factions within the Congress would be on a table in the ClP meet, where Shinde is expected to be apprised of details of the causes of factionalism in the party. The ClP meeting attains significance as the party has to initiate the process of ticket allocation also. Both the factions have completely different opinions on the issue of ticket allocation. While the Virbhadra Singh loyalists say that the CM should be given free hand to choose candidates for all the seats in the State, the rival faction is demanding tickets on consensus.