Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday dissolved the entire Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) unit in Himachal Pradesh along with the district and block units with immediate effect.
An official communication from AICC general secretary K C Venugopal read: "Congress president has approved the proposal to dissolve the entire state unit of the PCC, district presidents and Block Congress Committees of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, with immediate effect".
With this move, Congress has dissolved its unit of one of the only three states where it has a Chief Minister from its party. The move is being seen as part of the grand old party's plan to restructure Congress's Himachal unit. Notably, there has been no change in the PCC ever since the Congress won and formed its government in the hill state, news agency PTI reported.
The president of the outgoing state unit of the party is Pratibha Singh, who is widow of former CM Virbhadra Singh. She has already become a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which is the party's highest decision-making body. Pratibha Singh was was appointed as state Congress chief in April 2022.
Factionalism has been an issue within the Himachal Congress and was recently seen during the Rajya Sabha election in February 2024, when the Congress's nominee Abhishek Singhvi lost to BJP's Harsh Mahajan after several Congress MLAs defected and cross-voted, rebelling against the ruling party and highlighting the internal discord that existed within the unit.
Congress had appointed Mahajan as one of the working presidents in the Himachal unit when he switched sides and joined the saffron camp.
Several names are doing the rounds for the new party chief in the hill state. Some of the prominent ones include Anirudh Singh and Harshvardhan Chauhan, PTI reported.