SHIMLA: A first-time Congress MLA from Kasauli in Solan district, Vinod Sultanpuri, has all of a sudden emerged as a contender in the race to be the party’s Himachal Pradesh president.
Highly placed sources in the Himachal Pradesh Congress said Vinod Sultanpuri could emerge as the dark horse as he is usually not seen aligned with either the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu camp or Holly Lodge faction headed by Pratibha Singh.
The Himachal Pradesh Congress is currently headed by former Mandi MP Pratibha Singh, who too is eyeing an extension. She is the wife of six-term former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and the mother of PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh.
Another choice for the Congress state president’s post could have been Theog MLA Kuldeep Rathore, who had held the post earlier too. It was under Kuldeep Rathore’s leadership that the Himachal Congress had sprung a surprise and won crucial bypolls to Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly and Mandi Lok Sabha seats in November 2021 when the BJP was in power in the state.
Vinod Sultanpuri defeated former Health Minister
Vinod Sultanpuri had defeated his BJP rival Rajiv Saizal, a former Health Minister, by a margin of 6,768 votes in the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. He belongs to the Scheduled Caste category and is the son of six-term former MP late Krishna Dutt Sultanpuri.
From 2006 to 2008, he was the Solan district president of the Indian Youth Congress, national secretary of the Indian Youth Congress from 2009 to 2011 and Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary from 2012 to 2019.
Vinod Sultanpuri, however, lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Shimla (SC) seat to BJP’s Suresh Kashyap by a margin of 91,451 votes.
Why Vinod Sultanpuri may emerge as consensus face
The Himachal Pradesh Congress is currently headed by former Mandi MP Pratibha Singh, who too is eyeing an extension. She is the wife of six-term former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and the mother of PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh.
Though the names of Rathore and Cabinet Minister Anirudh Singh too have been doing the rounds for the post, they are unlikely to make the cut as both belong to Shimla district, which already has three ministers in the Cabinet.
Both Sukhu and Holly Lodge camps, therefore, may agree on Vinod Sultanpuri’s candidature. Incidentally, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge too belongs to the SC category.
Despite holding power in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress has been functioning without a formal state-level organisation for nearly six months.
The entire executive structure, from the state to the block level, was dissolved on November 6, 2024, by Kharge. Since then, the party has been operating solely under the nominal leadership of PCC chief Pratibha Singh, with no supporting organisational framework in place.
The vacuum has paralysed ground-level activities across the state. Party offices remain largely inactive and grassroots workers are growing increasingly disheartened. The silence in the Shimla Congress headquarters is being interpreted as a symbol of the party’s current organisational inertia.
Poll preparations lagging as BJP moves ahead
With the panchayati raj and urban local body elections scheduled for the end of 2025, the Congress’ delay in rebuilding its organisation could have serious political consequences. The BJP, meanwhile, has already kickstarted its preparations, giving it a potential edge on the ground.
Political analysts believe that unless the Congress leadership resolves internal disputes and revives the party’s organisational machinery swiftly, it risks losing momentum in the crucial run-up to local elections.
Sunil Chadha (Executive Editor)
