Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today cleared the appointment of four Congress leaders as chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of state-level bodies in a bid to "strengthen the party" after its drubbing in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.
Rajinder Rana, who lost to BJP's Anurag Thakur in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat by 98,403 votes, was appointed as a vice-chairman of the State Disaster Management Authority, while Major (Retd) Vijai Singh Mankotia would be chairman of the HP State Tourism Development Council. Both the posts are of cabinet rank.
Former MLA from Shilai in Sirmaur district Harshwardhan Chauhan has been appointed as the chairman of the HP State Resource Mobilisation and Employment Generation Committee. Shilai was among the eight Assembly segments where Congress was in lead in the Lok Sabha polls.
Ramesh Chauhan, a Virbhadra loyalist from Solan district, was appointed as the chairman of the HP Khadi Board.
The Congress has lost the state's all four Lok Sabha seats, including Mandi which was earlier represented by Chief Minister's wife Pratibha Singh, to the BJP.
The Chief Minister said that "these appointments were necessary to strengthen the party and give equal opportunities to all leaders". "They are not replacing any existing chairman or vice-chairman but will be in addition to those already holding the positions in the government," he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister reiterated that his party's leaders worked very hard and there was complete coordination during the campaign, but 'Modi wave' swept the state like in other parts of the country.
Asserting that there was no threat to his government, Singh said, "The poll results are not a verdict against the state government and will not in many manner causes any worry about the numbers and the government will last its full term."
Singh also defended appointments of retired bureaucrats as his advisers and key functionaries in the CM's office and said that "these are some of the highly experienced persons assisting me in running the government affairs and my secretariat and all charges against the Chief Minister's Office are false".
