Apprehensions regarding two assemblies co-existing in Himachal Pradesh after the election results are declared on Friday next have finally blown over. The new Government, if the Congress is voted out, can assume office immediately after the poll results are out.

After a rap from the Congress High Command, the party in Himachal Pradesh has decided not to pursue a petition filed by state Revenue Minister Sat Mahajan in the High Court for postponing counting fixed for December 28. “The state cabinet in a meeting on Monday, presided over by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, decided not to pursue Mahajan’s petition on deferring counting,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kaul Singh Thakur said.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday made it clear that the Congress will uphold democratic norms and demit office if unable to get a clear mandate of the people. Till last week, the Chief Minister had been insisting that he had the constitutional and legal right to stay in office till March 9, 2008 — the day when term of the current Assembly ends.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy, during a visit to Shimla to review poll arrangements, had claimed that two assemblies can co-exist and one such earlier instance happened in Tamil Nadu.

On Tuesday, Virbhadra Singh said, “Irrespective of the fact that EC’s decision of holding early elections was patently wrong, I will not be party to any constitutional crisis in the state. We have taken a decision not to exercise our legal and constitutional options of going to the High Court or the Supreme Court. If the Congress gets a majority on its own, then we have a clear option to complete the term till March 9.”

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