Explainer: Why Congress Lost the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha Seat Despite Majority

Congress suffered a major setback in the Rajya Sabha elections with party veteran Abhishek Manu Singhvi losing to BJP's Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls through a draw. The results have highlighted the resentment among the Congress MLAs in the state and CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu's failure to address the rebellion, reports ETV Bharat's Pradeep Singh Rawat.

Shimla: The Sukhwinder Singh government, with the strength of 40 of the 68 MLAs in the Himachal Pradesh and the support of three independents, could not understand the maze created by the BJP for the Rajya Sabha seat with Congress veteran Abhishek Manu Singhvi losing to BJP's Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls through a draw of held on Tuesday Feb 27. Far from penetrating this maze, Congress failed to even assess this strategy.

BJP National Vice President Saudan Singh was camping in Shimla where he is believed to have held talks with disgruntled Congress MLAs. Congress, on the other hand, could not understand the 'game' despite being aware about the saffron party's strategy.

CM Sukhu Fails to Address MLAs' Resentment: A government with a strong majority showing signs of disintegration in such a manner in just over a year has never been seen in the history of Himachal Pradesh politics. Of course, this was an extraordinary development, but its signs were visible right from the time of formation of the government. Sukhwinder government came to be called the “government of friends”.

Sources said that the Sukhu government took the resentment of disgruntled MLAs lightly so much so that Rajendra Rana, who defeated the powerful politician Prem Kumar Dhumal, was also not respected. Sudhir Sharma and Rajendra Rana have been indicating for a long time that they were deeply angry, but no serious effort was made by the government to pacify them. Lahaul MLA Ravi Thakur was indirectly expressing his displeasure while Indradutt Lakhanpal was also feeling marginalised according to sources.

Besides, Rajendra Rana and Sudhir Sharma continuously stood in with the youth that the pending results of exams should be released. Sources said that Sharma met the youth sitting on strike and also emptied his purse and donated for their movement. When Sudhir Sharma and Rajendra Rana even said that they will not become ministers now, the government should have understood this.

Obviously, Sukhu, who had been in the organization for a long time, could not understand this entire maze.

Mistake of Taking Harsh Mahajan lightly: BJP leader Harsh Mahajan, who defeated Congress' Abhishekh Manu Singhvi mastered the art of politics over the years. Mahajan remained close to Virbhadra Singh in Congress for a long time and knows the intricacies of politics very well. He himself has been a mentor to CM Sukhwinder Singh.

The government was feeling that even the BJP MLAs would not support Harsh Mahajan who had switched from Congress to BJP.

Dinner Diplomacy Did Not Work:Within the Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi was also seen as an outside candidate. Congress played dinner diplomacy, but it did not work. All 40 Congress MLAs and three independent MLAs were present at the dinner hosted at a famous hotel in Shimla on the eve of voting day. But the very next morning everyone changed sides and by cross voting, Abhishek Manu Singhvi was removed from Himachal.

After the defeat, Singhvi said that this was a lesson on “human nature”. All in all, everything is not well within the Sukhwinder government, which was confirmed by Tuesday's cross-voting.