VERTICAL DESCENT FOR CONGRESS

It's been a bit of a nerve-wracking rollercoaster ride for the Congress of late, with the latest jolt to its self-image coming from a state it would have deemed relatively peril-free: Himachal Pradesh.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

But as it realised on February 27, with a Rajya Sabha election that went horribly wrong, no paradise is free of things that move in sudden, unpredictable ways.... As another day rolled by unsteadily in trauma ward, the Grand Old Party was scrambling to save its only solo state government in north India. Home remedy was out of the question, since trouble had erupted precisely because the local unit was caught up in internecine strife. So, Congress troubleshooters from elsewhere-Karnataka strongman D.K. Shivakumar, former Haryana CM Bhupinder S. Hooda, Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel-were drafted in to impose a modicum of order, and talk to everyone to arrive at a resolution.

As things stood after hectic confabulations late on February 28, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had just about erased the question mark put over his continuation. But the rebels, too, had holstered their guns. State PWD minister and son of the late CM  Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya Singh, who left the Sukhu government teetering on the edge by sending in his resignation, had been mollycoddled enough to take it back. And, in a counter-strike, the budget was passed after 15 BJP legislators were suspended for 'unruly behaviour. The six Congress MLAs who had cross-voted to defeat party candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, too, were suspended, and disqualified a day later.