Congress’s Sukhvinder Sukhu to be named Himachal Chief Minister and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will take the final call.
A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party is set to take place in Shimla shortly where the decision of the Congress high command will be announced. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will take the final call on who will be the Chief Minister of the state, sources have said, according to NDTV, but it is likely Sukhvinder Sukhu will be named Himachal Chief Minister.
Earlier, with the Congress winning the Himachal Pradesh polls, its leaders on December 8 credited party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s campaign in the hill state for the good showing of the party in the assembly elections, reported by PTI.
Priyanka Gandhi led the party’s charge in Himachal Pradesh with several rallies and was also closely involved in strategic planning for the polls. Many leaders hailed her leadership in securing the win for the party and defeating the BJP’s election machinery.
“Heartfelt thanks to the people of Himachal Pradesh for giving the mandate to the Indian National Congress. This victory is the victory of people’s issues and their resolve to progress. Best wishes to all the leaders and workers of the Congress party. Your hard work paid off,” Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, a third-time MLA from Nadaun in Hamirpur district, is a lawyer by education and has risen through the grades of the Congress wing National Student Union of India (NSUI). Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was an activist at Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, who led the NSUI state unit in the late 1980s.
After establishing himself with a full-time political career, he was president of the state Youth Congress in the 2000s. Though from another district in another region of the state, he won the municipal election twice in Shimla and was then made secretary of the state unit in 2008, eventually getting to the top of the state unit.
He was replaced as state unit chief in 2019 by Kuldeep Rathore reportedly in a compromise against factionalism. He is a member of the 13th Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, representing the Nadaun assembly constituency of Himachal Pradesh. He was the president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee from 2013 to 2019