Now the cat, indeed, is out of the bag as Congress returns to the power with thumping majority after five years in Himachal Pradesh, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party by a handsome margin. The Congress put up a spirited campaign under Five times Chief Minister and HPCC president Virbhadra Singh to emerge victorious by a comfortable margin. Being pitched as a strong CM contender, Mr. Singh led his party while winning Shimla (Rural) constituency defeating his BJP candidate by about 20000 votes.
While Virbhadra Singh who was the star campaigner of Congress and worked really hard for the elections in the state deserve the credit for party’s victory. Now the next question that comes to mind is who will be the next CM. While the question isn’t hard to answer but there are strong aspirations from the other party member like Kaul Singh Thakur, Vidya Stokes, Aasha Kumari, Brij Bihari Lal Butail and GS Bali. The race for the CM seems to intensify even more with the victory of all these candidates in the polls, while Virbhadra Singh might also find himself in the cold water for the charges in a graft case framed against him in a special court.
BJP leader and Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal conceded defeat as Congress easily crossed the half-way mark of 35 in the 68-member Assembly. While the Congress has won the elections, it now remains to be seen who the Chief Minister will be and Virbhadra Singh remains the frontrunner.
