Newsmaker | Armed with Virbhadra legacy, new Himachal Congress chief Pratibha vows to clinch polls
When she hosted a lunch for leaders of various warring factions of the Himachal Pradesh Congress in Shimla a few months ago, Pratibha Singh might not have known that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership will soon give her the mandate to keep the party united and lead it in the state.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has appointed Pratibha, the 65-year-old three-time party MP, as the HP Congress Committee (HPCC) president in the run-up to the Assembly elections slated for November this year.
The wife of HP Congress stalwart and six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who passed away in July last year, Pratibha currently represents the Mandi parliamentary constituency, which she won in a bypoll last year. She has now been entrusted with the job to help the party win the upcoming polls.
“I’ll work with dedication and make sure the party comes to power,” Pratibha told The Indian Express soon after her appointment as the new HPCC chief on Tuesday. “They have put this responsibility on my shoulders.”
Evidently, what goes in Pratibha’s favour is Virbhadra’s legacy. Her appointment as the state Congress president is a signal that the party would bank on Virbhadra’s legacy in the polls.
“There is no leader of his (Virbhadra’s) stature in the state. There is no tall leader like him. Even we can’t step into his shoes,” Pratibha had told The Indian Express in an interview earlier this month.
She admitted she won the Mandi bypoll due to a “sympathy vote” following Virbhadra’s demise. “Even the dedicated BJP workers had told me that they would vote for Raja sahib (Virbhadra) because he did so much for the state. Yeh shradhanjali ka vote tha (It was a vote of tribute),” she said.
A former HPCC vice-president, Pratibha was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha from Mandi in 2004 and 2013. A reluctant politician, she claims given a choice, she would not have entered the political arena. “Circumstances were such that I came into politics, maybe partly because I was married into a political family.”
Asked about her future challenges like the upcoming Assembly elections, Pratibha said, “The fight is going to be between the principal Opposition Congress and the ruling BJP”, adding that “AAP doesn’t exist in the state”. HP politics has always been a two-party affair involving the Congress and the BJP, throwing up alternate governments headed by either of them.
Pratibha’s son Vikramaditya Singh is currently a Congress MLA from Shimla rural constituency. She wants him to be on his own. On “why she would not play Sonia Gandhi to her son”, she said: “I don’t believe in projecting him (Vikramaditya) unnecessarily. There are many senior and experienced leaders in our state unit. Vikramaditya is a first-timer. He needs to learn and prove himself. People have accepted him because of Virbhadraji. Now he has to prove his capability. Ghisai zaroori hai, tabhi gem banega (It is necessary that he works hard, only then will he shine like a gem).”
