Sukhu inducts 7 ministers, including Vikramaditya, appoints 6 CPS
Shimla: Two veterans, including an 82-year-old Dalit MLA—Col (Rtd) Dhani Ram Shandil and 78-year-old OBC leader Chander Kumar, also a former minister, and Vikramaditya Singh, 33, son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh are among seven ministers inducted in the one-month-old Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu Cabinet.
Sukhu also took the route of appointing some of his loyalists as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS)—seven total to strike a caste and regional balance in the government.
He kept three vacancies in the Cabinet as discussion on some of the names remained inconclusive with the party high command including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and party in-charge Rajiv Shukla, both not agreeing to Sukhu’s choice of three other ministers.
The Cabinet size in Himachal Pradesh is 12 and Sukhu had submitted a list of 10 names with two positions — he himself and Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri already taken oath at Shimla’s Ridge ground on December 11.
Sukhu told media persons the number of cabinet ministers including the Chief Minister and Deputy CM has increased to nine. “Three vacant posts will be filled up in due course,” he added.
One of the striking features of the Cabinet and new appoints of the CPS reflects that Sukhu had his way to accommodate some of the MLAs, who stood by him in the race for Chief Ministership against...PCC president Pratibha Singh and Mukesh Agnihotri—who had to settle down with Deputy CM post. Those who did not find room in the Cabinet were made CPS. However, the state’s biggest district Kangra — known for its role in the formation of the government — got just one cabinet minister—Chander Kumar, a former MP who had also served with Virbhadra Singh as a cabinet minister. Kangra having 15 Assembly seats, had elected 10 Congress MLAs.
Mandi –— home district of former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who elected nine BJP MLAs leaving just one constituency for the Congress, did not get any representation through Kinnaur — a tribal district part of Mandi Parliamentary Constituency which had elected Pratibha Singh in 2021 bypoll, got a cabinet minister, Jagat Singh Negi, a five-time MLA. Shimla with seven Congress MLAs, out of eight, got three cabinet ministers while Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur, Lahaul-Spiti, and Una did not get representation.
While the Chief Minister hails from Hamirpur his deputy CM is from Una. Thus, no other MLA got a chance to make way to the Cabinet.
Former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said, “The Congress government has failed to give adequate representation to all the regions in the Cabinet”. Among the new ministers, Harshwardhan Chauhan, a six-time MLA elected from Shillai, three-time MLA elected from Kasumpti Anirudh Singh and four-time MLA Rohit Thakur from Jubbal-Kotkhai are considered close to the chief minister.
The other ministers are eldest MLA Dhani Ram Shandil, a former minister elected from Solan; Chander Kumar, a former minister and six-time MLA from Jawali in Kangra district; and Jagat Singh Negi, a former deputy speaker and five-time MLA from tribal Kinnaur district.
Barring Col Shandil and Chander Kumar, all other five are first-time ministers.
Earlier this morning Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath to the newly inducted ministers at a ceremony at the Raj Bhawan.
Sukhu had camped in Delhi for three days to get the list of the cabinet ministers approved by the party high command as pressures were mounting on him to form the Cabinet, which did not exist for almost a month.
In Delhi, he held consultations with Mallikarjun Kharge and other leaders and returned on Saturday to initiate the process for the Cabinet formation.
Sukhu kept the suspense over names till midnight when he started conveying to the probable ministers. He also spoke to PCC president Pratibha Singh informing her about her son Vikramaditya Singh‘s induction.
The delay in Cabinet formation had turned out to be a major embarrassment for the ruling Congress as the opposition BJP had also criticised Sukhu on this.
Those having left out included Sudhir Sharma, a former minister from Dharamshala and Rajesh Dharmani, AICC secretary.
The Congress won 40 Assembly seats in the November 2022 polls while the BJP won 25 seats.
Sukhu who had the backing of more than 24 MLAs when he was chosen as the chief minister thus tried to secure maximum positions for his loyalists despite Pratibha Singh and Agnihotri, beside former PCC president Kuldeep Rathore lobbying.
Newly appointed CPS included — Sunder Thakur (Kullu), Ram Kumar ( Doon-Baddi), Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru), Sanjay Awasthi (Arki), Ashish Butail(Palampur) and Kishori Lal ( Baijnath).
