Shimla: The fault line in Himachal Pradesh Congress resurfaced on Tuesday, with former state Congress president Pratibha Singh launching a pointed attack on party leadership and workers over the alleged sidelining of her late husband and former chief minister Virbhadra Singh during CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s visit to Rohru in Shimla district last week.Pratibha highlighted that posters and banners at CM Sukhu’s programmes carried no photograph of Virbhadra, and his contribution was also omitted from speeches.Though Pratibha did not directly name Sukhu, her remarks were mainly directed at those who organised the event and party functionaries who attended the CM’s programme, making it one of her sharpest public expressions of discontent with the present party affairs.“This shows their lack of political maturity and their narrow mindset,” the former MP remarked.Pratibha added that it had not been very long since Virbhadra passed away—July 8, 2021. “Yet we have forgotten him so quickly and even stopped remembering his contributions,” she quipped.The outburst comes amid a history of publicly acknowledged differences between the Virbhadra and Sukhu camps, making the Rohru controversy more than a dispute over posters.Rohru, which Virbhadra represented five times and was long regarded as his political stronghold, hosted Sukhu last week. Neither Pratibha nor her son, PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh, attended the chief minister’s visit.“How could you forget such a personality?” Pratibha asked, expressing her grievance against Congress functionaries who accompanied the CM.Pratibha was in Rohru on Tuesday to meet the family of Congress functionary Ishwar Dutt Chhawaru following his demise.Pratibha questioned the party’s grassroots leadership too, saying that if those organising the programme had not put up Virbhadra’s posters, Congress workers themselves could have displayed “20 posters and 20 banners”.Her reference to “lack of political maturity” and a “narrow mindset” was seen as a veiled criticism of the organisational leadership around CM Sukhu.The former HPCC chief also referred to NSUI and Youth Congress leadership, arguing that younger workers must understand and preserve the contribution of senior Congress functionaries.The sharper political message came when she contrasted Rohru with Sirmaur. She said Congress programmes in Nahan and Sirmaur district traditionally remember Himachal’s first chief minister, Yashwant Singh Parmar, and argued that Virbhadra deserved the same respect for his contribution to the hill state.Her remarks have revived debate over Virbhadra’s legacy and the competing political centres within the Himachal Pradesh Congress. The issue is particularly significant ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, with Pratibha having recently stressed the need to address shortcomings and improve coordination between the govt, ministers, legislators and the party organisation.
