With the Cabinet formation in Himachal Pradesh, where the Congress party came to power in December 2022, still not settled, the principal Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started to push the government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, to the wall.
The three-day Winter Session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly will begin on January 4, and the BJP party has decided to firmly raise its voice inside the House against the Congress government’s recent decisions of closing several offices and institutions, which were started by the BJP government.
Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Himachal Pradesh State Assembly, Jairam Thakur on Tuesday, told The Hindu there were clear indications that ‘all is not well’ within the Congress against the backdrop of the inordinate delay in the Cabinet formation. Besides, the State government had started its work on a ‘negative note’ by taking anti-people decisions based on ‘vendetta politics’.
“It’s not a very stable government as there are many internal conflicts among the Congress leaders. This is one of the reasons that the Cabinet has not been formed even though it’s been over twenty-five days since the government was formed,” said Mr. Thakur.
“Government indecisive”
“Not only this, the first session of the State Assembly after the election results is usually conducted within a week’s time, but there has been a long delay in holding the session as well, which only shows that the government is ‘indecisive’ and the Chief Minister is not in ‘control’ of the situation and the State,” added Mr. Thakur.
The Assembly Session will be held from January 4 to January 6 at Dharamshala in Kangra district. On the first day of the session, pro-tem Speaker Chaudhary Chander Kumar will administer the oath of office to the newly-elected members. On the second day, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be elected. On the last day, Governor Rajendra Arlekar will address the House.
“This is a short session, yet we will raise issues surrounding the functioning of the new government in the House. In the last few days, the State government has passed orders to close many government institutions, which were opened by the former BJP government…this is clearly out of political vendetta. The Congress has started working on a negative note, which is unfortunate,” said Mr. Thakur.
On December 11, Mr. Sukhu took oath as the new Chief Minister and Mukesh Agnihotri as the Deputy Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. The Assembly session was earlier scheduled to begin on December 22. However, with Mr. Sukhu testing positive for COVID-19, the Assembly session was cancelled and re-scheduled. With the Cabinet not yet formed the anxiousness among the probable MLAs and people across the State has only been rising.
“It’s not a very stable government as there are many internal conflicts among the Congress leaders”Jairam ThakurLeader of the Opposition in Himachal Pradesh State Assembly