CHANDIGARH: Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu expanded his ministerial team on Monday, four weeks after returning to power in the state, with the induction of seven ministers, including Vikramaditya Singh, the son of former CM Virbhadra Singh and state party chief Pratibha Singh.
Leaders belonging to the influential Rajput community from the upper part of the state, dominate the cabinet. Six chief parliamentary secretaries were also appointed in order to please the MLAs who could not get the cabinet berths.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath to the newly inducted ministers in a simple ceremony at Raj Bhawan. Of the seven ministers, three are from Shimla district: Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla (Rural), Rohit Thakur (Jubbal-Kotkhai) and Anirudh Singh from Kasumpti (Shimla district). The rest belong to Solan, Kinnaur, Sirmaur and Kangra. So, six ministers are from upper Himachal and only Chander Kumar is from Jawali in Kangra district which is lower Himachal.
The Congress won seven of the eight seats in Shimla district. In Kangra, it won 10 seats out of 15.
The strength of the cabinet has risen to nine. Besides the post of deputy speaker, three berths are vacant as the maximum number of ministers, including the chief minister, cannot exceed 12 as per rules.
Sukhu and his deputy Mukesh Agnihotri were sworn in on December 11. The CM has tried to balance caste equations as Anirudh Singh, Rohit Thakur, Harshwardhan Chauhan and Vikramaditya Singh are from Rajputs community, taking the number of the community members in the cabinet to five, including the CM.
Jagat Singh Negi is from ST, Dhani Ram Shandil comes from SC and Chander Kumar is an OBC member while Deputy CM Mukesh is a Brahmin. With simmering party factionalism and infighting, Sukhu has walked the tightrope. He had gone to Delhi in the midst of the winter session at Dharamsala and had returned on Saturday after deliberations with the top party leaders.
The Congress has 40 legislators in the 68-member Assembly and Sukhu has the direct backing of more than 24 MLAs. In a bid to please the MLAs who were unable to make it to the cabinet, the CM today appointed them as chief parliamentary secretaries.