Harbinger of change: Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu with Rahul Gandhi | PTI
The Congress seems to have a new strategy for selecting leaders. The grand old party chose Mallikarjun Kharge, a dalit leader, as its president a few months ago, putting an end, though symbolically, to the Gandhi family’s 24-year reign. This December, it appointed Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu as Himachal Pradesh chief minister. Son of a state transport bus driver, Sukhu has risen through the ranks in the party and is a quintessential organisation man. The Congress’s last chief minister, Virbhadra Singh, was a Rampur Bushahr royal.
In the 2017 elections, Sukhu was the state Congress chief but Virbhadra wanted him removed. The Congress partly succumbed to the six-time chief minister’s demand and removed Sukhu as campaign committee chief but retained him as party chief. The party lost the election, though.
Following Virbhadra’s death in July 2021, his wife, Pratibha Singh, was made party chief. After the recent assembly election, she wanted to be the chief minister, but the party leadership ruled in Sukhu’s favour. He had the support of most of the MLAs, whom he had chosen as candidates and nurtured.
Sukhu’s rise to the top post heralds a generational change in the state politics as well as in the Congress. His humble origins are expected to be the party’s calling card in the days to come as it nuances its politics at the national level. A similar strategy was tried in Punjab when a dalit leader, Charanjit Singh Channi, was chosen to replace Patiala royal Amarinder Singh as chief minister in 2021.
“I have worked for 40 years in the state politics. I have given it all. We will work to restore people’s confidence and provide a honest and transparent government,” Sukhu told THE WEEK after the Congress’s victory.
Sukhu’s mother, Sansar Devi, said he had gone through a long struggle. “He gave up jobs, even his legal practice, to pursue politics. He is a driver’s son. He should work for the development of the state,” she said.
Sukhu entered politics when he was 17, and became students union general secretary in Government College, Sanjauli. When he ran for students union president in 1984, the rival candidate was Naresh Chauhan. Sukhu beat Chauhan, but they soon became close friends. The first appointment he signed after becoming chief minister was to make Chauhan his media adviser.
When Sukhu was studying law in Himachal Pradesh University, he was appointed state president of the National Students Union of India. He ran for the post of university students union president in the same year. “The elections were held in 1989 and student politics at that time was dominated by the left. I won and Sukhu lost,” said Sanjeev Bhushan, a lawyer and left activist. “[But] it was the start of worker-oriented politics in the Congress in the state.”
Staking claim: Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh | PTI
Sukhu later won two consecutive terms in the Shimla Municipal Corporation and became the state Youth Congress president in 1998. Five years later, he returned to his home district, Hamirpur, where he was elected from the Naduan assembly constituency for two terms. Though he lost the assembly election in 2012, the party reposed its faith in him and made him its state president next year. After serving two terms he was replaced in 2019.
One of the factors that worked in Sukhu’s favour is that he is a Rajput, a politically dominant caste in the state. About 35 per cent of the population is Rajput, and all Himachal chief ministers barring Shanta Kumar, a Brahmin, were Rajputs. Sukhu comes from the lower Himachal region, the area that was added to the state after its formation, while most chief ministers had come from the upper Himachal region. Sukhu’s proximity to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also might have played a part in his selection as chief minister.
During the assembly election campaign, Sukhu had asked the leadership not to declare a chief minister candidate to avoid feuding. He pushed for ideas to recharge the state’s rural economy. His suggestions were among 10 guarantees that the Congress gave the electorate. His big challenge, in the days to come, will be fulfilling those promises.