Twenty days after taking over as the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, 58, faced angry opposition in the state assembly on day one of its three-day-long winter session convened at Dharamshala on Wednesday.
The assembly session convened for MLAs to take an oath and elect a new Speaker was marred by uproarious scenes as the Leader of the Opposition, former chief minister, Jai Ram Thakur, pointed out that the oath was being taken after 24-25 days. The chief minister is yet to form his cabinet. But, he (Sukhu) has started his work with a sense of revenge which has never happened.
However, amid confrontation, the opposition BJP and Congress later reached a consensus on naming five-time MLA Kuldeep Pathania as the new Speaker of the state assembly.
In a role reversal, Thakur, mounted a scathing attack on his Congress successor over the closure of 500 institutions especially when there is no cabinet in place to reverse the decision of the previous government, mandated to rule for five years.
The Congress has returned to power after winning 40 seats, more than the two-thirds majority, in the November 2022 state assembly elections. The BJP lost power to Congress as the people preferred voting 'for a change' with the 37-year-old custom of rotating government after every five years.
The BJP MLAs joined him in questioning the manner in which institutions were closed down arbitrarily.
"A decision taken by the cabinet can only be reserved or rescinded by the cabinet, not by an individual. Just tell the House whether you are going to withdraw your orders of notifications or not ?" asked Jai Ram Thakur.
The pro-team Speaker Chander Kumar tried to pacify the angry opposition members and appealed to the House to complete the process of oath for the MLAs but this did not work.
There were uproarious scenes when ruling party MLAs also decided to lock horns with the BJP.
The chief minister finally rose to reply but he justified his action.
"The BJP government had opened 900 institutions only in the last nine months of its tenure before the elections, in the hope to return to power. No staff was sanctioned to run these institutions, no posts were created. There were health institutions run by a pharmacist and a school by a peon. The move has imposed a burden of Rs 5000 cr on the state exchequer. We will examine all the decisions on a case-by-case basis. Those institutions which are justifiable will stay," he declared.
This further triggered protests in the opposition leading to a walk-out.
As new MLAs including first-timers like R S Bali, son of former Congress minister (late) G S Bali, Dr Janak Raj, a cardiologist, Ranvir Singh Nikka, Kewal Singh Pathania, Trilok Jamwal, Chaitanya Sharma, Ashish Sharma, Neeraj Nayyar, D S Thakur, Devender Kumar Bhutto, Vinod Sultanpuri, Harish Janartha and Ajay Solanki took oath as MLAs.
PCC President Pratibha Singh (wife of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh) also reached Dharamshala to oversee her son Vikramaditya Singh, a second-time MLA, taking oath in the House.
When asked when he is going to the cabinet, Sukhu said, "The cabinet will be formed soon after the assembly session. I have no pressure to take hurried action on the cabinet. The government is functioning well. Let there is a right time."
Yet, sources say some of the aspirant MLAs have started losing patience over inordinate delay in forming the cabinet as few also attribute this to infighting within the party and also strong lobbying groups owing allegiance to Pratibha Singh. Few are pulling strings for the berths from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
