Why tensions simmer within Himachal Congress leadership

A seemingly trivial incident involving misplaced samosas and cakes has unexpectedly thrown light on the simmering political tensions within Himachal Pradesh’s Congress leadership. When snacks meant for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu were served to his security staff instead, the subsequent CID probe—which labelled it an “anti-government” act and saw five of its sleuths being served with show-cause notices for the goof-up—became fodder for both opposition ridicule and internal party criticism.
The incident took place on October 21 when Sukhu was visiting the CID headquarters. But, curiously, the “leaks” of the CID probe erupted on news channels on November 8, days after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge decided to dissolve the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC)—though state unit chief Pratibha Singh has been asked to continue.
This organisational upheaval follows a high-level review of the party’s poor Lok Sabha election performance in eight states—Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. In fact, in Himachal, it lost all four seats and trailed in 61 assembly segments—a stark contrast to its commanding victory in the 2022 assembly elections, where it won 40 seats in the 68-member house.
Congress leaders in New Delhi say that even Sukhu and Pratibha felt the need to reconstitute the HPCC. But the party’s challenges in Himachal run deeper than electoral setbacks. In March, internal factionalism reached a crisis point when six “unhappy” Congress legislators and three independents defected to the BJP. While the Sukhu government survived this scare, winning six out of nine assembly bypolls, the rifts within the party have only widened.
At the heart of this power struggle lies the complex relationship between Sukhu and Pratibha Singh, widow of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh. The anti-Sukhu lobby in Shimla accuses him of running the government through a close-knit coterie that allegedly treats legislators with “contempt”. They are now citing the “samosa controversy” to further build their case. Sukhu’s supporters, on the other hand, counter that dissidents had been collaborating with the BJP to destabilise the government.
The HPCC reorganisation has become a battleground for this factional warfare. Both camps want their loyalists to get positions in the state, district as well as block units. “There is a need to bring in new blood and rebalance the structure of the organisation,” says a close confidant of Pratibha Singh.
Even though Pratibha’s son Vikramaditya Singh is part of the Sukhu cabinet, her hold over the legislators had weakened in the past two years. But now she is gaining new supporters, many of whom are disenchanted with Sukhu. But the CM’s supporters seek to maintain their control over party machinery, resisting the attempts of Pratibha’s camp to develop a team of loyal foot soldiers. For the Congress high command, the challenge lies in balancing these competing interests while maintaining party unity.
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