BJP’s working better, says Himachal leader Pratibha Singh as Congress rumblings continue

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, March 1

Despite three party observers claiming that all was well within the state Congress now, the events unfolding on Friday indicated that the rumblings within the party were not completely over yet.

Vikramaditya meets disqualified rebels

• Congress chief Pratibha Singh’s son and PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh met disqualified MLAs in Panchkula on Friday, keeping the party on tenterhooks
• CM Sukhu played down the development, saying the minister was in touch with him over the visit. “He told me the rebel leaders wanted to speak with him,” said Sukhu.

PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh’s meeting with disqualified Congress MLAs in Panchkula and later state Congress president Pratibha Singh talking candidly to mediapersons about her own and party workers’ grievances with the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government set abuzz fresh speculations throughout the day.

While Pratibha claimed that all Congress leaders were making efforts to pull out the party from the deep trouble it had landed in, she made it clear that the fault lay with the government for the current crisis as neither the party workers were accommodated nor the ministers were given a free hand to work. “It’s shameful for us to lose the Rajya Sabha seat. If the concerns raised by us had been addressed, we would not have seen this crisis,” she said. The state Congress chief also said the BJP was organisationally better than the Congress. “A lot of things remain to be done in the Congress. It is true that the working of the BJP is better than ours,” she said.

Meanwhile, Vikramaditya Singh’s meeting with the disqualified MLAs also kept the Congress on tenterhooks throughout the day. The Chief Minister, however, played down this sudden development, saying the minister was in touch with him. “He has been in touch with me over this visit. He told me the rebel leaders wanted to speak with him. See, even family members get angry with each other, it’s no big deal… all is fine,” said Sukhu.

In an apparent attempt to placate Pratibha Singh and Vikramaditya Singh, the government made their loyalist Nand Lal, the MLA from Rampur Assembly constituency, chairman of the 7th State Finance Commission with a Cabinet rank.