With Congress getting a majority in Himachal Pradesh, the party MLAs of the hill state will meet in the party office Friday afternoon to discuss government formation. Late Thursday evening, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and All India Congress Committee in-charge Rajeev Shukla met in a hotel in Mohali and decided to hold a meeting with the newly elected Congress MLAs of Himachal in Shimla. The names of Pratibha Singh, former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife and Himachal Congress president, former state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and five-time MLA Mukesh Agnihotri are being considered for the chief minister’s post. However, sources say the MLAs are likely to let the party high command take a final call on who will head the Congress government in the hill state. With initial trends of poll results on Thursday morning showing a possible neck-and-neck contest between BJP and Congress in Himachal, there were speculations that the Congress MLAs may be brought to Chandigarh to ensure they are not wooed by political opponents. However, eventually, Congress succeeded in gaining a comfortable majority in the state. Nevertheless, Congress sources said the leadership is alert about the possibility of ‘horse trading’. When asked about the venue of the MLAs’ meeting, Bhupinder Singh Hooda had stated on Thursday, “We will take a call about the venue of the meeting while keeping in view the convenience of the MLAs. We do not have any programme to take them to Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. The people have given us a clear majority in Himachal Pradesh and we will form the government there. Horse trading is done by the BJP.”
