New Delhi, Dec 10, 2022: Congress party’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, an MLA from Nadaun in Himachal Pradesh, has been appointed the next Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. Five-time MLA Mukesh Agnihotri will serve as the Deputy Chief Minister.
“Deputy Chief Minister designate Mukesh Agnihotri and I will work in cohesion as a team. I started my political career at the age of 17 years. I will never be able to forget what the Congress party has done for me,” Mr Sukhu told reporters, as per the news agency ANI.
Congratulating the new Chief Minister, Congress leader Anand Sharma tweeted,”A matter of pride that the son of an ordinary family will be our CM, thanks to our leadership, Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge ji, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi for leading a spirited campaign. My good wishes and support to my new CM Sukhu.”
Earlier, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh, the wife of Virbhadra Singh, and Mukesh Agnihotri had been vying for the Chief Minister’s post.
“We accept the decision taken by the Congress high command,” Pratibha Singh told reporters on Saturday evening.
Singh had staked her claim upon the job with a sharp reminder for the leadership in Delhi. She said the elections were fought and won in the name of Virbhadra Singh and it would be “a disaster” for the party to sideline his family.
But she did not enjoy popular support among the party’s newly-elected 40 MLAs, which is why she has been dropped from the contest, according to sources.
In sharp contrast to ex-royal and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Mr Sukhu served as an activist at Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla and spearheaded the National Students’ Union of India’s state unit in the late 1980s.
