16 yrs after father’s arrest forced him out,Sukh Ram’s son back as minister

“Sharma will be in charge of the rural development and panchayati raj and animal husbandry departments. The last remaining vacancy in the cabinet will be filled after the budget session of the Assembly beginning here on March 12,” Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh later said.

A three-time MLA from Mandi and a former Rajya Sabha member,Sharma had earlier served as minister of state in Virbhadra Singh Cabinet from 1993 to 1996 and had resigned from the council of ministers after his father,Sukh Ram,was arrested in the telecom scam.

Sharma later joined the Himachal Vikas Congress,floated by Sukh Ram after his expulsion from the Congress in 1997. The party later merged with the Congress ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. An earlier function,planned for February 23,to induct Sharma into the Cabinet was cancelled following protests from certain sections in the state unit of the Congress. The Chief Minister had then rushed to Delhi and met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretaries Janardhan Dwivedi and Birender Singh to get a formal approval for a ministerial berth for Sharma. Sukh Ram too had met Sonia and other senior party leaders. A bitter political rival of Virbhadra Singh,Sukh Ram later mended the fence after taking retirement from the electoral politics.

He was present at the swearing-in ceremony. Among others who were present,include Assembly Speaker Brij Bihari Butail,all nine cabinet ministers and Pratibha Singh,chairperson of Hospital Welfare Section of Indian Red Cross Society.