Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu: ‘On track to implement OPS in first Cabinet meeting’

On the issue of a divided Congress, given state chief Pratibha Singh’s vocal demand for the CM post, he said, “I do not believe that after Virbhadra Singh there is any group politics. Of course, after elections there are some issues between people. But they do not get in the way of the larger functioning of the party.”

Sukhu said the Congress did not make elections about “state versus Narendra Modi” as part of a strategy. “Two months before the polls, Priyanka Gandhi held a meeting in which it was decided that we will not make this election a Modi vs state affair. Instead we will make it a state vs state election. This worked in our favour and this win is a result of the meticulous planning,” said the CM.

Sukhu added that deep reasearch was carried out on demographics and based on that issues were raised. “The idea was to make people aware of the problems in the government functioning. Issues such as Old Pension Scheme, unemployment, job crisis, police recruitment scams are very important and we focused on raising them. We made it an issue-centric elections,” he said.

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Sukhu, who is known as an approachable leader with a vast network in the hill state due to his long years in the organisation, also aims to curb infighting in the state Congress.

Asked about Cabinet expansion, the CM said the onus was on AICC in-charge Rajiv Shukla. “The Centre cannot deprive Himachal of its rights. We have policies in place and a structure in mind. We will work hard for the state and the inefficiencies of the previous government will be rectified,” Sukhu said.

The CM also added that the election results were an indictment of BJP national president JP Nadda and Union minister Anurag Thakur as the saffron party lost a majority of seats in their regions.