The Himachal Pradesh election results 2022 were a close call between Congress and the Bhartiya Janta Party, with the grand old party ultimately capturing the flag and declaring the majority in the state with 40 out of a total of 68 seats.
While the Congress party had major celebrations over winning the Himachal Pradesh elections 2022 with a significant margin, the Chief Minister's face of the party for the state has still not been announced and is open to speculations.
According to sources and media reports, the name for the CM post in Himachal Pradesh seems to be a three-way tie between Himachal Pradesh unit chief Pratibha Singh, former state president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and outgoing Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri.
Pratibha Singh, the wife of former Himachal Pradesh CM late Virbhadra Singh, is being viewed as the top candidate for the Himachal CM post, while the newly elected MLAs have been asked to convene in Shimla for a high-level Congress meeting, likely to decide on the new state head.
Her son Vikramaditya Singh won the MLA seat from Shimla (rural) for the second time and pushed for his mother to claim the role of the chief minister for the next term. He said, “As a son and a responsible leader of the party, I want the high command to give the responsibility to my mother. Rest, the party’s choice will be acceptable to all.”
Further, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu is also a strong candidate who can be made the new chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, where Congress and BJP were embroiled in a thrilling, neck-to-neck battle. Sukhu is the head of the party’s campaign committee and started his career as a student leader in NSUI, which is the youth wing of Congress.
Sukhu won the Naduan assembly seat for the fifth time this year, and remains one of the front runners for the Himachal Pradesh CM post, especially since he is known to openly bash Pratibha Singh and she ascertains for the CM post.
The Congress party, after hours of a see-saw battle with BJP, ended up winning the Himachal Pradesh elections 2022 with a total of 40 seats, easily claiming the majority. BJP, however, just won 25 seats in the state, and CM Jairam Thakur is expected to resign soon.
READ | Elections 2022: BJP’s historic win in Gujarat, Congress’ surprise feat in Himachal, but AAP celebrating the loudest
