AICC declares delegates’ list

After deciding to retain incumbent Pradesh Congress Committee president Kaul Singh Thakur on the post of state chief,the party high command seems to have tried to strike a balance in naming AICC delegates from Himachal Pradesh.

Union Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh,who could not muster much support to get his loyalist named as PCC president in place of his estranged lieutenant,has managed to get maximum leaders included in the AICC delegates’ list. A broader estimate shows that in the 14-member list,the Union minister has seven loyalists — two of them,former minister Harsh Mahajan and sitting MLA Mukesh Agnihotri,have surprised everyone by getting a place among the delegates. Mahajan did not contest the 2007 Assembly elections,citing personal reasons,and is not even a member of the PCC. He had,however,initially figured among the probables for PCC chief’s post. Virbhadra’s detractors are,meanwhile,happy that his wife Pratibha Singh,a former MP who was earlier denied ticket to contest the Rohru by-election after Virbhadra’s election to Lok Sabha,has not been considered by the party.

Union minister Anand Sharma,who proved to be the mastermind to get Kaul Singh Thakur made the PCC president,got his supporter Kuldeep Rathore included in the delegates’ list. Congress Legislature Party leader Vidya Stokes has sitting MLA Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu among the delegates. Former ministers Asha Kumari and G S Bali and Rajya Sabha member Viplove Thakur,too,have got the nomination to AICC,though they don’t belong to any camp.

All eyes are now on the PCC president’s next move to form his state executive and also appoint office-bearers,including a team of general secretaries.