It was not a smooth sailing for Sukhwinder Sukhu to reach the top post in Himachal

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, December 10

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader today unanimously elected Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, four-time legislator from Nadaun in Hamirpur, as chief minister, after hectic lobbying and political developments for the last two days.

It has hardly been a smooth elevation for Sukhu to the top post with stiff opposition from State Congress President Pratibha Singh amidst hectic political lobbying. Five-time Haroli MLA Mukesh Agnihotri will be the Deputy Chief Minister. The oath could take place tomorrow itself. 

Forging consensus for Sukhu (58) was not easy with Pratibha Singh vehemently being opposed to his occupying the top post. The reason for her resistance is not hard to guess as Sukhu never hesitated to even take on a towering personality like Virbhadra and often took on the six-time CM.

It was after pacifying Pratibha and CLP Leader Mukesh Agnihotri that central leaders, Chattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel and Rajeev Shukla and managed to get Sukhu elected as CLP leader to pave the way for his elevation as CM.

Interestingly, Sukhu has straight been catapulted from an MLA to the chief minister’s chair. Leave aside being a minister he has not even held the post of chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) or even Chairman of a Board or Corporation in his almost three decade long political career.

What went in favour of Sukhu was the support of majority of the 40 Congress MLAs. Apart from this, he is reported to have received the backing of the Gandhis, including Rahul and Priyanka. Congress has done very well in Sukhu’s home district of Hamirpur by winning four of the five seats while one was won by an Independent. Congress has also done very well in all the three districts of Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur, which constitute the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat.

As far as the caste dynamics of the hill state are concerned, he hails from the dominant Rajput community. Out of the six past CMs that Himachal has seen, five were Rajputs– Dr YS Parmar, Ram Lal Thakur, Virbhadra Singh, PK Dhumal and Jai Ram Thakur–except Shanta Kumar.