First-time Congress MLA Kewal Pathania appointed as Chief Whip

Shimla, March 13

Kewal Singh Pathania, the first-time Congress legislator from Shahpur in Kangra district was today appointed as Congress Chief Whip in the Vidhan Sabha.

The appointment of Pathania is being viewed as a bid to placate Congress legislators and adjust majority of the MLAs by giving them political appointments. The post of Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip in the Vidhan Sabha had been lying vacant despite the formation of the Congress regime almost 14 months back.

It is being expected that the appointment of the vacant lying post of Deputy Chief Whip might also be filled up soon. The BJP had appointed two of its senior leaders, Narinder Bragta, MLA from Jubbal Kotkhai and Ramesh Dhwala from Jwalamukhi as Chief Wjhip and Deputy Chief Whip, after the two failed to get a ministerial berth in the jai Ram Thakur government.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has in the recent past accommodated many of the Congress MLA’s against various posts so as to keep the Congress flock together. The move is being viewed as yet another attempt to keep the flock of Congress MLAs together after the revolt by six Congress MLAs, who cross voted in the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27, last month.

Sukhu has already given political appointments to several party MLAs, including Rampur MLA Nand Lal and Fatehpur MLA Bhawani Pathania, ever since the political crisis in the aftermath of the defeat of the Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Pratibha Singh had on several occasions demanded that senior party leaders must be given political appointments like chairman and vice-chairman of boards and corporations and she had also raised the issue with the party high command. It is only now that the process of making political appointments has begun.