Congress announces six-member panel in Himachal Pradesh after Sukhu govt faced trouble

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday named six members of the Coordination Committee for better coordination between the party-led government in Himachal and the state unit.

Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and his bete noire state president Pratibha Singh as well as Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri are members of the panel, which was decided to be set up earlier this month as the government faced trouble.

Other members are Health Minister Dhaniram Shandil and former ministers Ram Lal Thakur, who is presently an MLA, and Kaul Singh Thakur.

The panel was set up on the recommendations of observers who were sent to Himachal by the central leadership following the crisis the Sukhu government faced after the Rajya Sabha elections.

The inability to get Abhishek Singhvi elected as Rajya Sabha MP following the cross-voting by six disgruntled MLAs, who were subsequently disqualified, had triggered a crisis. Minister Vikramaditya Singh, son of Pratibha and former Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh, initially quit the Ministry claiming insult to his father's legacy, though he later did not press for it.

As the observers spoke with MLAs, complaints were raised against Sukhu's style of functioning by MLAs owing allegiance to Pratibha and Vikramaditya.

It was during this interaction, the observers announced the setting up of a committee to coordinate between the government and the party.

While Sukhu, Pratibha and Agnihotri were named as members by the observers, they had said that the remaining three will be named by the central leadership.

A former soldier, Shandil is also a former Lok Sabha MP. Ram Lal Thakur too was a former Lok Sabha MP. Kaul Singh Thakur was minister and Himachal Congress president twice and faced strong opposition within the organisation from Virbhadra and Vidya Stokes.