THE HARD TREK TO SHIMLA

HIMACHAL PRADESH/ ASSEMBLY POLL

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

The Congress’s state-wide Yuva Rozgar Yatra started from Himachal Pradesh’s winter capital Dharamshala in end-July, a soft launch of the party campaign for the assembly election in November. In the runup to it, party sources claimed internal differences had been ironed out and sought to project a sense of unity. Not such an easy task, though, when the state unit’s steering committee was itself headed by a member of the famous G-23 group of rebels: former Union minister Anand Sharma. On August 21, Sharma quit that post protesting “continued exclusion and insults”. Six days later, he left the local unit on tenterhooks as he met Ghulam Nabi Azad, the latest high-profile escapee from the party, on the eve of a crucial CWC meeting in Delhi. With the state’s most recognised face in central politics himself looking edgy, the party’s Himachal in-charge, AICC secretary Rajiv Shukla, has his hands full.