New Delhi: Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu is set to become the next chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh CM Bhpesh Baghel said after Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Shimla on Saturday. The oath ceremony will take place on Sunday, news agency ANI reported.
A four-time MLA from Nadaun constituency in Hamirpur district, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu is a lawyer by education and emerged through the ranks from the Congress wing National Student Union of India (NSUI).
Sukhu switched to a full-time political career after he was elected as the president of the state Youth Congress in the 2000s.
Though from some other district in another region of the hill state, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu won the municipal election twice in Shimla. After his victory, Sukhu was made secretary of the state unit in 2008, eventually getting to the top of the Himachal Congress unit.
Although he was largely different in origins from the former royal Virbhadra Singh, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, as an activist at Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, led the NSUI state unit in the late 1980s.
In 2019, Sukhu was replaced as the Himachal Pradesh Congress unit chief by Kuldeep Rathore, reportedly in a compromise against factionalism.
It is to be noted that apart from Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, who headed the Congress campaign committee during the state assembly election, Mandi MP and Himachal party president Pratibha Singh and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly Mukesh Agnihotri were the frontrunners for the chief minister post.
Reacting to the announcement, the future chief minister of the state said that he will be working with the deputy chief minister as a team. "Mukesh Agnihotri, the Deputy Chief Minister-designate, and I will collaborate. I began my political career when I was 17 years old. I will never forget what the Congress party has done for me," Sukhu was quoted as saying by ANI.