Himachal Congress leaders meet as party tries to keep its flock together

In the backdrop of toppling of its government in Uttarakhand, Congress today sought to put its flock together in Himachal Pradesh with all its state leaders pledging to unitedly fight attempts to destabilise the Virbhadra Singh dispensation.

With factional feud in the party’s Uttarakhand unit partly contributing to the exit of its government, Congress organised a meeting of the coordination committee of Himachal in Delhi where all its leaders in the state, including chief minister Virbhadra Singh, all ministers and MLAs were present.

The meeting, that lasted over two and half hours, was chaired by AICC general secretary Ambika Soni, who is also incharge of party affairs in the state, and saw all Congress MLAs from Himachal putting their weight behind the state government.

Sources said they decided to unitedly fight out any attempts by the BJP-led Centre to destabilise the state government.

Some of the leaders, who are known critics of Virbhadra, however vented out their anger against him and sought changes in the functioning of the state government, the sources added.

Soni, when asked, downplayed it saying it was a “routine meeting” organised for coordination purposes. She said party matters were discussed during the exercise.

HPPCC chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said the party will fight unitedly any attempt to destabilise its government.

“We are together. We will protest jointly against the Centre’s attempts to destabilise the Himachal government. We will oppose BJP’s attempt to topple the Congress’ elected government in Himachal Pradesh,” he said.

The meeting was attended, among others by a number of senior ministers in the state including Vidya Stokes, Kaul Singh Thakur, Mukesh Agnihotri, G S Bali, besides other states leaders like Asha Kumari and Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur.

Some other state Congress leaders like Rangila Ram Rao, S S Pathania, Rakesh Kalia and Kuldeep Kumar were also present during the meeting.