HPCC issues notice to 12 Mandi Congress leaders for indiscipline

The Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee has issued notice to 12 party leaders of Mandi over their unfavourable statements in the media about the party.

Among those who have been asked to reply in 15 days are Champa Thakur, the daughter of former minister Kaul Singh Thakur and the Congress candidate in the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections, and two former MLAs Sohan Lal and Mansa Ram.

A party leader, requesting anonymity, said the state Congress chief had issued notice to district and block Congress members but not to those from the state party committee. The notice has also been sent to Deepak Sharma, Pawan Sharma, Jagdish Reddy, Jeevan Lal Thakur, Lal Singh Kaushal, Suman Chaudhary, Sanjeev Guleria, Vijay Pal Thakur and Veena Sharma.

DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE TO DECIDE ON FATE

These leaders have been asked for a response for issuing statements to the media and writing to the party high command against Himachal Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore.

After receiving the reply of the leaders, it will be placed before the disciplinary committee of the state Congress. The committee, headed by Solan legislator Dhani Ram Shandil, will decide on their fate.

Other members of the committee are Pawan Kajal, Sharmila Patial and Chet Ram. The meeting of the disciplinary committee, which was to be held in the first week of December, was deferred after a member, Virender Sood, died of Covid-19.

WERE ONLY TRYING TO STRENGTHEN PARTY: DETRACTORS

Rathore detractors say that they wrote to the high command to strengthen the party. “The high command should tell what’s wrong in writing to it or organising a meeting that aims to strengthen the party,” one of the detractors said.

Congress leaders in Mandi, who owe allegiance to former HPCC president Kaul Singh Thakur and former state party chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, have been feeling slighted. In the letter, they alleged that Rathore did not consult them while constituting the block and district units.

In October, Sukhu spearheaded a closed-door meeting with a group of former legislators from Shimla district, which has eight assembly segments, to chalk out their strategy.

Former Jubbal-Kotkhai legislator Rohit Thakur, former Chopal legislator Subash Manglait, former Shimla legislator Harbhajjan Singh Bhajji, former Kasumpti legislator Sohan Lal and Deepak Rathore, who unsuccessfully contested the election from Theog during the last assembly elections, attended the meeting. It’s likely that the party is also contemplating disciplinary action against them.