Shimla: Sanjay Awasthy and Chander Shekhar were made working presidents of State Congress, discussion on this was put to rest.

Reported & Written By Kumud Sharma, Diary Times, Shimla, March 28: Before the Lok Sabha and Assembly by-elections in Himachal Pradesh, the party high command has appointed Sanjay Awasthy and Chander Shekhar as working presidents of the State Congress. On the orders of Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge, Organization General Secretary KC Venugopal issued a letter regarding their appointments late on Wednesday evening.

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Sanjay Awasthy, MLA from Arki Assembly constituency of Solan district, is also the Chief Parliamentary Secretary in the government. Chander Shekhar is Congress MLA from Dharampur assembly constituency of district Mandi. Chander Shekhar is the only Congress MLA from district Mandi. At present, Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar and Assembly Deputy Speaker Vinay Kumar are also the working state presidents of Congress.

During the assembly elections last year, Congress had appointed four working presidents. Of these, Rajinder Rana and Harsh Mahajan left Congress and joined BJP. Sanjay Awasthy and Chander Shekhar, who were appointed new working presidents of the State Congress, are close to the Chief Minister. Till a few months ago, there was discussion that due to Pratibha Singh contesting the elections from Mandi, the charge of state president would be given to one of these leaders. But after the political turmoil in the state during the last one month, the discussion of removing Pratibha Singh from the post of state president has now come to a halt. Due to this, both these Congress MLAs have been appointed acting state presidents on Wednesday.

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