Protesters at Gumma in Shimla district on Tuesday. (Photo: Pradeep Kumar)
Revolt is brewing in the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh over mishandling of the school girl’s rape and murder case with half a dozen sitting MLAs, including two ministers, suggesting for change of leadership ahead of the polls. PCC president Sukhwinder Sukhu confirmed that six MLAs have written a letter to the party high command seeking removal of Virbhadra Singh should before the polls.
Singh has been under fire from the Opposition over the corruption cases against him and his links with mafia link. The latest gangrape case and subsequent custodial death of the accused has created a lot of resentment against the government especially against the chief minister within the party.
The MLAs, as the letter suggest, had claimed that the chief minister was not in control of the things and some people were running the Chief minister’s office in proxy’, which has created serious problems of governance in the state while the BJP was continuously gaining grounds.
Some MLAs claim that Chief Minister’s statements after the rape case, that such incidents do happen in the country off and on, has further irked the public. Even today he spoke on a similar lines in Kinnaur and asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi will resign on such happenings in the country.
Reacting to Singh’s Kinnaur statement, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said, “The chief Minister has lost his balance. It’s better he should resign and allow the elections to be held to choose a new government. He (CM) has no moral right to make such statements after having failed to handle the situation.”