Congress appoints ex-CM's wife Pratibha Virbhadra Singh as party's Himachal chief
India Today
Pratibha Singh, a Lok Sabha member from Mandi Parliamentary constituency and the widow of former six-term chief minister Virbhadra Singh, was named the new leader of the Congress' Himachal unit on Tuesday.
Ahead of the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress on Tuesday appointed Pratibha Virbhadra Singh as President of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee.
Pratibha, the wife of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister late Virbhadra Singh, is a Lok Sabha MP from the Mandi constituency. Senior leader Mukesh Agnihotri has been retained as the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also appointed former Union minister Anand Sharma as the chairman of the Steering Committee for the Himachal Pradesh Congress, with Asha Kumari as its convenor, while former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was appointed as the chairman of the Campaign Committee.
The reshuffle in Himachal Pradesh Congress assumes importance as elections in the state are scheduled to be held later this year. In the last assembly polls, the BJP had won 43 seats in the 68-member assembly.
The BJP's winning trend continued in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well and it had won all three seats in the state. The party has, however, recently suffered several setbacks in recent by-polls, including in the Mandi Lok Sabha election.
(With PTI input)
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