NEW DELHI: Former Himachal Pradesh CM and BJP leader
Jairam Thakur
has asked his
party workers
to be prepared as anything can happen in the coming days, hinting at a possible
change of guard
in the
hill state
even as the
ruling Congress
struggles to keep its flock together.
Jairam Thakur's statement comes after two Congress
ministers
, Rohit Thakur and Jagat Singh Negi, hurriedly exited the
cabinet meeting
on Saturday after heated arguments.
Thakur, who is also the leader of the opposition (LoP) claimed it is "difficult for the Congress to stay in power".
"Even the ministers are now walking out of the cabinet meeting," Thakur said.
The two ministers, however, later maintained that they had their engagements and Thakur returned after being pacified by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.
The former chief minister said the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government has lost the right to remain in power as nine MLAs, including six from Congress, voted in favour of BJP during the August 27 Rajya Sabha polls.
After Vikramaditya Singh’s announcement of his resignation from the council of ministers at the peak of the
crisis some days back, murmurs of many ministers and MLAs not being happy with the chief minister have been doing the rounds.
Rebel Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Rajinder Rana on Saturday claimed that nine more party legislators "feeling suffocated" due to Sukhu's style of functioning are in touch with him. He also termed the chief minister as "liar number one".
Rana told PTI, "Neither Vikramaditya Singh had told the chief minister that he is meeting the Congress rebels at Panchkula nor the CM had sent him."
"Vikramaditya Singh, who met us on his way to Delhi, did not ask us to patch up. He has his grievances against the government which failed to provide land for installing Virbhadra Singh's statue and interfered in his functioning," he added.
Sukhu on Friday said Vikramaditya told him he would meet the rebels who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls, even as he called the same six MLAs “black serpents”.
(With PTI input)
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