No infighting within Himachal Congress, 'conflict' was for CM post: Himachal CM

There is no infighting within the Himachal Pradesh Congress and the conflict was only for chief ministership as there were threefour claimants newly swornin CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has said adding if something were wrong there would have been a Rajasthanlike situationHe asserted that no Congress legislator in the state would defect to the BJP and the partys government was committed to work for the people and would fulfil the promise of restoring the old pension scheme for government employees in the first cabinet meetingIn an exclusive interview with PTI Sukhu said We have spoken to the finance secretary Under a strategy we know from where we have to generate money and where we have to invest We have done the work on introducing the old pension scheme and we will introduce it in the first cabinet meetingAsked about the expansion of his cabinet he said it will happen soon and denied reports about some MLAs lobbying for ministerial berths After the Congress wrested power from the BJP in the hill state winning 40 of the 68 assembly seats the party picked Sukhu 58 as its chief minister over some other claimants to the post including state party chief Pratibha Singh and Mukesh AgnihotriSukhu a fourtime MLA from Nadaun in Hamirpur district and the son of a bus driver was sworn in as the chief minister on December 11 Agnihotri took oath as the deputy chief ministerAlso read Who is Congress leader Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu the next CM of Himchal PradeshThe chief minister dismissed reports about infighting within the Congress state unit but admitted that there was jockeying for the post of CMConflict was for post its not party conflict Threefour people were willing to occupy the post of chief minister You can see till now we have not done the cabinet expansion If something were wrong a Rajasthanlike situation would have occurred he saidThe Congress government in Rajasthan led by Ashok Gehlot faced a rebellion by his then deputy and state party president Sachin Pilot and some other MLAs in 2020 Though the Congress managed to defuse the situation then the two factions have been at loggerheads ever sinceSukhu targeted the opposition BJP over reports that some Congress MLAs may join hands with it No Congress member will defect from the party he assertedHe said the people of the state voted against malgovernance of the BJPHe said the country is facing various issues such as unemployment and inflation but the BJP is trying to divert peoples attention from the core issue by using various tactics including making mockery of Rahul Gandhis speechHe hailed the Rahul Gandhiled Bharat Jodo Yatra and said the foot march aims to unite people and remove hate that is being spread in society in the name of religion and casteSukhu credited Congress workers for the victory of the party and praised party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for framing an effective campaigning strategyThe chief minister said his government was committed to work for the welfare of the people and would fulfil the 10 promises made to the people in the runup to the November 12 assembly elections The poll results were announced on December 8In its manifesto the Congress promised to implement the old pension scheme 30 units of free power and Rs 10 crore StartUp fund in each constituency among othersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever