The fear of MLAs being poached are relevant when there is a neck-to-neck contest, but when it is a comfortable majority, the fear is conspicuously absent.
While the Congress failed to even retain their core base in Gujarat, their show in Himachal Pradesh, if nothing, has given them the confidence to stay peacefully at Shimla without rushing the MLAs to the other state as proposed earlier. Gaining 40 seats in a 68-strong assembly, the Congress is far ahead of the magic number 35.
The biggest challenge for the party is now to consensually decide the name of its Chief Minister and today the newly elected MLAs will meet to elect their new leader.
Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla who is also in-charge of Himachal Pradesh told PTI, "The newly-elected Congress MLAs would meet in Shimla on Friday post-election results and decide on electing the new legislature party leader."
The Congress is also flying in Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel and senior party leader Bhupinder Hooda to Shimla for the meeting. “The party is sending two observers — Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and senior leader Bhupinder Hooda — along with me. We will be traveling to Shimla today where all the party MLAs have been called," Shukla added.
There are majorly three contenders for the post- Sukhwinder Sikhu, Mukesh Agnihotri and party veteran Pratibha Singh. Sikhu while had been the Himachal Pradesh Congress campaign chief, Mukesh Agnihotri was the leader of the opposition in Vidhan Sabha.
However, the stakes of Pratibha Singh are reportedly higher. Being the PCC chief as well the wife of late Congress satrap Virbhadra Singh, Pratibha has remained a constant favourite for the party high commands. If she gets the CM post, she will have to get elected from any assembly seat within six months of taking oath.
The commendable results of Congress in Himachal Pradesh while by a few are attributed to the ‘riwaz’ of alternating government, the party wants to give credits to the party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi whose campaign trail perhaps worked for the first time. Priyanka’s earlier failure in Uttar Pradesh though made people question her credentials, reports say that the victory in Himachal Pradesh would legitimise her relevance.
If the convention and Priyanka Gandhi campaign are the two major factors in favor of Congress, the rebellion within BJP also eased their path to victory. At least 21 constituencies among 68 saw BJP rebels contesting against their former party. Though only 2 of them managed to win, in most of the seats they had taken away BJP's share- sometimes its core constituencies.
