Virbhadra resigns, to stay till BJP govt takes charge
: Virbhadra Singh tendered his resignation as the Himachal Pradesh chief minister to governor Acharya Devvrat here on Tuesday, a day after the Congress suffered a drubbing in the assembly elections.
The governor accepted the resignation and asked Singh and his cabinet to continue in office till the new BJP government was formed.
Faced with a strong anti-incumbency wave, the Congress managed to win only 21 seats in the 68-member assembly.
The BJP swept the elections by winning 44 seats.
The CPI(M) bagged one seat, while two seats were won by Independent candidates.
Singh’s son Vikramaditya, who made his electoral debut from Shimla Rural on Monday by defeating Pramod Sharma of the BJP by 4,880 votes, accompanied the outgoing chief minister to Raj Bhavan. Sources said Singh urged the governor to bless his son.
Back at his private residence Holly Lodge, where he was greeted by a traditional band, Singh said, “It’s unfortunate that alternating governments in the state have become a trend. In the next elections, it’s going to be the Congress.” Singh told reporters that he chose to contest from Arki instead of Shimla Rural this time to challenge and check the BJP’s winning run.
“Considering the party’s performance in Arki, I decided to contest from there. It’s not factionalism but at times a situation arises when one faces a dearth of resources. Modi sahib used all resources of the country to win the elections in Himachal. It was difficult for a small state like ours to match that,” Singh added.