Virbhadra Singh sworn in as Himachal CM for a record 6th time

The ministry was finalised after Singh held consultations with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in Delhi yesterday, sources said. Singh was formally elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Shimla on Saturday.

Singh was Chief Minister between 1983 and 1985; 1985 and 1990; 1993 and 1998 and 2003 and 2007.

In his five-decade-long political innings, he has been a seven-time MLA and a five-time MP. He has also been a four- time President of the Himachal chapter of Congress and also represents the Mandi seat in the present Lok Sabha.

Singh had a detailed meeting with AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi, who was deputed as observer by the party high command for Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet, on Saturday evening in Shimla and discussed several key issues

relating to government formation.

In a major relief to Singh, a court here yesterday acquitted him of charges of corruption and conspiracy in the much-publicised audio CD case.

While Congress won in Himachal Pradesh, it faced defeat in Narendra Modi-ruled Gujarat. The victory in Himachal came for Congress at a time when the ruling dispensation at the Centre is battered by one controversy after another.

An indication to Virbhadra Singh's clout in Himachal Pradesh politics was evident, when he was made the Chairman of Congress' campaign committee for Himachal ahead of the Assembly polls only days after he had resigned from the Union Cabinet following framing of charges against him in the CD case.

Singh was earlier made a member in the Manifesto Committee of the party chaired by his bete noire Anand Sharma.

There were reports that Singh had threatened to quit the party and join NCP if somebody else was projected as Congress' Chief Ministerial candidate, a speculation later denied by the party veteran.

As soon as electioneering picked up in the state, AICC leaders had made it very clear that the party's face for the Himachal elections was Singh. After the election results were out, senior Congress leaders had said that there would be "no surprise candidate", maintaining that the choice in Himachal Pradesh was "obvious".

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