Shimla: There were tears in Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s eyes when the Congress chose him as the new chief minister of Himachal Pradesh — a reflection of a common man’s rise through the political ranks to occupy the top post in the state.
His swearing-in ceremony is set to begin shortly in Shimla.
Sukhu, the son of a Road Transport Corporation driver, who once sold milk and newspapers to make ends meet, ventured into politics when he was elected class representative at the Government Degree College in Shimla in 1981.
Since then, it’s been a steady rise. He was elected state president of the Congress’s student wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in 1989 and then president of the state’s youth Congress in 1998. He also headed the state party unit for six years, from 2013 to 2019.
The 58-year-old, a ‘youth’ leader by Congress party standards, is a four-time MLA from the Nadaun district in Himachal’s Hamirpur, known to be the bastion of BJP’s former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and now the parliamentary constituency of Union Minister Anurag Thakur.
Sukhu was first elected MLA from Nadaun in 2003, and had never even been a cabinet minister in the Himachal government which the Congress has held for eight terms. He was, however, chief whip of the Congress Legislature Party from 2007 to 2012.
Sukhu’s image as a firebrand leader stems from his decision to not take the “easy route” in the state Congress, i.e. closeness to stalwart and 6-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, to establish himself, state party leaders told ThePrint.
Till the former CM passed away last year, Sukhu was one of his biggest critics in the party. He bested Virbhadra Singh’s wife, MP and state unit chief Pratibha Singh, and his protégé Mukesh Agnihotri to secure the top post.
Sukhu is also known to hold currency with the Congress high command in Delhi and shared a good relationship with Rahul Gandhi. His organisational strength and profile as a grassroots leader are said to be the clinchers that cemented him as the choice of the party leadership and of the elected Himachal MLAs for the post of CM.
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Conflict with Virbhadra Singh & rise to CM post
According to party functionaries in Himachal, Sukhu was not in favour of the clout that Virbhadra Singh held and that he cut short many leaders.
It is also believed that Singh largely operated autonomously and not under directions from the party high command.
According to a party functionary, when Sukhu became MLA for the first time in 2003, he was offered the role of political secretary by Virbhadra Singh, but refused.
Virbhadra Singh also had an image of being a Upper Himachal leader, a region where his family was once royalty. Even today, Singh is referred to as ‘Raja Saheb’ and Pratibha as ‘Rani Sahiba’.
Sukhu’s appointment as CM will mark a shift in the “legacy politics” of the Congress party in Himachal and for the first time, the state has a Congress CM who hails from the lower regions of the state.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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