Shimla: Faction-ridden Congress on Thursday
captured the Shimla Zila Parishad winning posts of chairperson
and vice-chairperson after union minister Virbhadra Singh and
state Opposition leader Vidya Stokes arrived at a consensus on
candidate’s name.
Aniruddh Thakur of Congress defeated Indu Verma of
BJP for the post of chairperson, while Prahalad Kashyap of
Congress defeated the BJP-backed candidate Surinder Singh for
the post of Vice chairperson.
The meeting of Shimla Zila parishad was deferred
twice as the Congress party which had eleven members and
support of two other non-BJP members in the 24-member council
could not reach any consensus on the candidates and did not
attend the meeting.
But finally Singh and Vidya Stokes arrived at a
consensus at the meeting of the Zila Parishad members and
decided the names. The two CPI (M) members also supported the
Congress candidate.
Thakur got 14 votes against nine votes polled for
Verma for the post of chairperson, while Kashyap also received
14 votes against 10 for Surinder Singh.
Later, Virbhadra Singh rubbished the claims of faction
in the state Congress and claimed there is unity in the party.
PTI
