To commemorate the senior Congress leader Virbhadra Singh, who has completed 50 years in active politics, party workers’ and his supporters have planned a rally at Ice Skating Rink in Shimla on 23 June. The event is also important as the state is scheduled to go to polls later this year and Virbhadra Singh with his mass base can play an important role in to bring Congress back to power and it can play an important role to show his importance within the party as he has been struggling to fight his detractors within the party and maintain his dominant presence in the state politics after last assembly election defeat.
Virbhadra Singh had entered Lok Sabha for the first time in 1962 (3rd Lok Sabha) from Mahasu constituency. In 1962, Virbhadra Singh was youngest parliamentarian and now after fifty years of active political career there is no other member in the present Lok Sabha to have entered the Lok Sabha before him.
In his long career in politics, Virbhadra Singh had held the office of Deputy Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation in central cabinet in 1976 and 1977. He was Minister of State for Industries between 1980 and 1983. After that he has served as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh record five times. Presently, he is Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the Manmohan Singh ministry.
To make this event successful and true accolade to the Raja Sahib, his supporters have erected as many as 350 hoardings across the state. Many of hoardings and billboards, having multi-colour pictures of Virbhadra Singh, have already started coming up on Cart Road and other vantage points of the Shimla city and other places of State.
June 23 is also a birthday of Virbhadra Singh and supporters are working hard to make it memorable for their leader. It is expecting that more then 50,000 supporters will attend the rally, but since the Ice Skating Rink does not have space to accommodate more than 15,000 people, the organising committee has decided to put up LCD screens at different places in the town, for which they have sought permission from the district administration.
