Months after dismal performance in Lok Sabha polls, Congress dismisses Himachal Pradesh unit

The Congress party on Wednesday dismissed all its units in Himachal Pradesh almost 5 months after the grand old party's abysmal performance in the Lok Sabha elections in the hilly state. 

In the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress failed to win on any seat out of the four seats. The party could not even clinch the Mandi seat, where it fielded Vikramaditya Singh against Kangana Ranaut. 

In an official statement, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary KC Venugopal said that Mallikarjun Kharge approved the dissolution of the entire Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), district presidents, and Block Congress Committees in Himachal Pradesh, with immediate effect. 

At present, Pratibha Singh is the state Congress president. Singh, who is also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), was appointed to the role in 2022. Despite the dissolution of the state unit, there is no indication of any changes to Singh's position in the CWC. 

Factionalism within the grand old party also came to the fore in the Rajya Sabha bypolls earlier this year when Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost to BJP's Harsh Mahajan. Singhvi lost as six Congress MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP leader.

Later, the six MLAs were disqualified for going against the party whip to vote in favour of the finance bill in the assembly. Due to the political crisis in the state, the party's strength in the 68-member assembly came down to 34 from 40. 

During this time, Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh announced his resignation from Sukhu's cabinet, citing alleged attempts to humiliate and undermine him.

Singh also noted that the grand old party fought the 2022 assembly elections in his father and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's name but failed to find a small plot of land on Mall Road to install the former CM's statue.

He, however, took his resignation back later in the name of "the larger interest and unity of the party." No changes were made to the PCC since the party won 40 of the 68 seats in the 2022 assembly elections.

This, however, is not the first time that the Congress has dissolved its Himachal unit. In 2019, the party made a similar move but retained Kuldeep Singh Rathore as the state president despite the dissolution of the state unit.