Himachal Cabinet To Be Expanded After Assembly Session: Congress MP

Congress Himachal Pradesh state in-charge Rajeev Shukla on Monday said the cabinet expansion of the state government would take place after the upcoming assembly session. Mr Shukla yesterday held a meeting with Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal.

"The meeting was about the strategy for the upcoming assembly session. The Leader of the House has to be elected there as well. The Congress president's approval is also required. The election for the post of Speaker was also discussed. Discussion on cabinet expansion will take place later as the upcoming session is about to start," Mr Shukla told news agency ANI.

The Congress Rajya Sabha MP also responded to the recent ruling by Supreme Court on demonetisation. "Rahul ji kept saying that because of demonetisation the nation suffered a lot. The economic crisis is due to demonetisation," he referring to former party chief Rahul Gandhi.

Monday's meeting lasted for nearly 2.5 hours.

Till now, only Sukhvinder Singh as the Chief Minister and Mukesh Agnihotri as his deputy are the only faces of the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh while 38 other MLAs are eying for Cabinet berths.

Mr Sukhu's supporters are expecting a big share in the Cabinet while state congress chief Pratibha Singh is expecting her son Vikramaditya to be part of the government.

Mr Shukla also negated any chance of 'Operation Lotus' in the state.

The Assembly session is scheduled to be held from January 4 to January 6 in Dharamshala, after being postponed last month.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)