Kangra, March 30
Former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said that his rank in the Congress had come down drastically. He was speaking at a party rally at Dari, near Dharamsala. The meeting was chaired by party in charge (Himachal Pradesh) R.K. Dhawan.His emotional outburst came after he was asked to address the rally before CLP leader Vidya Stokes and party’s state chief Viplove Thakur. This perhaps hurt sentiments of Virbhadra Singh, who, in view of his seniority, stature and experience in the party, expected to address the rally just before chief guest Dhawan.He asked people when the Congress had contributed the most towards the development of the state, what was the reason for the party’s debacle in the last Assembly elections? The reply came from a party worker in the gathering who said: “Infighting”.On being asked that former tourism minister G.S. Bali differed with his observation that the BSP factor, wrong ticket distribution and failure of the central leadership to campaign in the state led to the party’s defeat, Virbhadra Singh said, “This is my personal point of view which was commonly shared by party workers in the state. Moreover, anyone is free to have his personal viewpoint on a situation.”When mediapersons asked Dhawan about Virbhadra’s outburst, he said the media was manipulating things.

The “aabhar rally” organised by the Kangra District Congress Committee for expressing gratitude to UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a good Budget and waving the loans of farmers, once again brought to the fore the infighting between two factions of the party led by Virbhadra Singh and CLP leader Vidya Stokes.However, party in charge (Himachal Pradesh) R.K. Dhawan maintained the party was united and strong enough to fight anti-people and unjust policies of the BJP government. The Congress would reign again before the expiry of the five-year term of this government. He said vindictiveness was in the blood of the BJP leadership and they could stoop to any level for that.He said the recent Budget presented by the UPA government was as a step towards mitigating problems of the unemployed youth, common people and farmers.He lambasted L.K. Advani for allegedly misleading people about Kandahar negotiations through his book claiming that he was not aware about the decision of releasing terrorists for the release of passengers. Dhawan said the director of Intelligence Bureau, who was directly under Advani, who was the home minister, was accompanying Jaswant Singh to Kandahar. Obviously, Advani had written a shameful lie, he said.Without actually naming Virbhadra Singh, he suggested him to forget the past and work unitedly for defeating the anti-people designs of the BJP.Virbhadra Singh said the Congress leadership should work hard for strengthening the party to throw the BJP out of power. He said the BJP was planning to pass a Bill for throwing out members of the state women commission before the completion of their term. He announced that the Congress would oppose the Bill on the floor of the House, resort to a walkouts, approach the Governor for not accepting the Bill and move the high court, if the need be.
On the other hand, CLP leader Vidya Stokes said the CLP would decide about the action to be taken in that regard at an appropriate time.Viplove Thakur also spoke on the occasion.