After RS election blow, Himachal Congress braces for 6 Assembly bypolls, fate of its govt on the line

Along with the Lok Sabha elections, Himachal Pradesh will vote for bypolls to six Assembly constituencies, now vacant after the sitting Congress MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP in the recent Rajya Sabha elections and were disqualified. However, given that theripples of that rebellion haven’t still settled in the Congress, the party led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is facing a tough task trying to retain the six seats, which include Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret, Kutlehar, Dharamshala, and Lahaul-Spiti.

In the Rajya Sabha election held on February 27, the Congress had been unable to get its nominee, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, elected despite having the numbers. The cross-voting by the six Congress MLAs apart from the support of three Independents had helped the BJP’s Harsh Mahajan win. On February 29, the Himachal Assembly Speaker had disqualified the six Congress MLAs.

The Congress had won the Assembly elections in 2022 winning 40 seats in the 68-member House, with the BJP at 25. The disqualification has left the Congress at 34, with a BJP win in the bypolls likely to take its tally to 31. Given that the Independents are already favouring the BJP, that could put the Sukhu government under threat.

Worse, since the cross-voting episode, the division within the state Congress between Sukhu’s loyalists and the faction led by state unit president Pratibha Singh seems to have widened. Pratibha is the wife of the late Congress leader Virbhadra Singh, a six-time CM; the loyalty of their son Vikramaditya, a state minister, remains unclear after he openly sided with the rebels and briefly quit from his post last month.

On Wednesday, Pratibha said she would not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls if nominated by the party,