Changes due as Rathor’s tenure to complete soon
Dinesh Kanwar
As the tenure of president of Himachal Pradesh Congress committee is nearing completion and elections of state vidhansabha are closing, the AICC had reportedly started its move to restructure the organisational structure of HPCC currently being headed by Kuldeep Rathor.
The sources from the AICC headquarters revealed that there are possibilities of change of not only in the state organisation structure but emphasis are on to change centre observer and congress incharge of Himachal Pradesh Rajiv Shukla too.
The sources also indicated change of leader of opposition in the state assembly. Presently Mukesh Agnihotri MLA from Haroli in Una district is holding this portfolio. It was learnt that former HPCC President Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is considered as front runner for the post of leader of opposition in the house.
Pertinently, there are many senior leaders in congress party who are trying their luck for the post of state president of HPCC and these included Kaul Singh Thakur, Asha Kumari, Ram Lal Thakur, Sudheer Sharma Mukesh Agnihotri, GS Bali, Harshvardhan Chauhan, Harsh Mahajan and Viplove Thakur. But few of them are out of race following either age criteria or health issues. Hence leaders of congress party at the national secretariat at 24 Akbar Road could be seen doing brain storming for the next president of HPCC. It would not wrong to say that Kuldeep Rathor faced strong opposition within the party after demise of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and many forces in the state congress were acting against him for termination of his tenure.
Meanwhile, some yet to be verified information revealed that Kaul Thakur was being considered for the post of HPCC president, who was also president of HPCC earlier but was replaced by VB Singh just before 2012 elections. It was also apprehended that party could think of Mukesh Agnihotri for HPCC president if he is to relinquish from position of CLP leader.
Yet in all combinations it is apprehended that the congress could shuffle the state congress unit at any time and this report had started making rounds in the inner circles of congress party. Many congress people who were relying on Rathor till now had started looking for their new role in the party at state, district and block level.
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