Himachal minister Vikramaditya Singh puts resignation on hold hours after quitting

Vikramaditya Singh, the Congress leader who resigned as a minister in Himachal Pradesh cabinet, has decided not to 'press his resignation' till discussions with party leaders are over.

Singh resigned as minister on Wednesday adding to the crisis being faced by the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh after 6 of its MLAs cross-voted in Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday.

'There is a difference between taking back the resignation and not pressing the resignation till the time the dialogue and the action of the observers is not complete. We have talked to the observers. We have informed them about the present situation. I will not press my resignation until a decision is taken. The final decision will be taken in the coming time,' Vikramaditya said.

His resignation on Wednesday morning has been rejected by Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.

Vikramaditya Singh, as he announced his resignation, said he was "deeply hurt" with the transpiring going on over the past two days and said there is a need to ponder what went wrong for the Congress.

He said he has apprised Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi of the developments. The ball is now in the party high command's court, he added.

"The Congress party had made promises to the people and we owe the responsibility to fulfil those promises. I would decide my future course of action after consulting my supporters," Vikramaditya Singh said.

He said the 2022 assembly elections in the state was fought in the name of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, also his father.

"There was no poster or hoarding or banner which did not carry his picture. There was a full-page ad with his picture in the newspapers a day before voting," he said.

But after the victory, when the matter of installing his statue arose, the government failed to decide the location.

"It is not a political but an emotional thing for a son," Vikramaditya Singh said.

He also quoted a couplet by the last Mughal Emperor of India Bahadur Shah Zafar: "Kitna hai bad-naseeb 'Zafar' dafn ke liye, do gaz zameen bhi na mili kuch-e-yaar mein." Fissures in the Congress has come to fore with some party leaders openly criticising the functioning of the Sukhu government.

Vikramaditya Singh has been raising his concerns about functioning of the government while state Congress president Pratibha Singh, his mother, had been repeatedly pressing for rewarding the dedicated leaders of the organisation, who worked hard for the victory of the party.

She even said party leaders and MLAs are unhappy as their concerns are not being addressed.

Earlier, upset over the omission of some sections in the budget, Vikramaditya Singh had blamed negligence on the part of some officers and said they had taken strong cognisance of it.

He had told the PTI that multi-purpose workers of the public works department (PWD) have been left out in the budget and no reference has been made regarding the job-seekers sitting on dharnas for early declaration of results, a day after budget was presented.

Two of the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan on Tuesday - Rajender Rana and Sudhir Sharma - were also vocal against the government and had supported the protest by the candidates awaiting declaration of results of several posts.

Congress MLA from Sujanpur assembly seat, Rajinder Rana, had shot a letter to the chief minister saying that even after 14 months of formation of the government, the youths are still waiting for jobs.

"We had promised to provide employment to one lakh youth every year. The youth of the state are eagerly waiting for the fulfillment of that promise", he had said in the letter also posted on Facebook.

(with PTI inputs)