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Shimla, Oct 12 (IANS) Congress Parliamentary Party President Sonia Gandhi reached the Himachal Pradesh capital on Sunday to attend the unveiling of the statue of veteran party leader Virbhadra Singh, who has commanded the state a record six times.
This statue will be installed in Daulat Singh Park on the historical ridge.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu welcomed Sonia Gandhi on her arrival in Shimla along with cabinet colleagues.
The statue was earlier planned to be unveiled on June 23, the birth anniversary of Virbhadra Singh, but it was postponed due to the busy schedule of the party leadership.
The invitation for the function was given by Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh, the late leader’s son and chairman of Raja Virbhadra Singh Foundation.
The statue will be located near the statues of Dr. YS Parmar, the first Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, as well as other notable figures including Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose statues are also installed on the ridge.
The veteran Congress leader died at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH) here on July 8, 2021, after a three-month-long battle with post-Covid complications, doctors said. He was 87 years old.
Virbhadra Singh, popularly known as ‘Raja Saab’, heir to the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr, was in active politics for more than 50 years.
Being a charismatic leader, he was known for having no hesitation in joining hands and bowing before the common people to seek votes for the party – be it assembly elections, parliamentary elections or municipal elections.
Singh, a nine-time MLA and five-time MP who first entered the Lok Sabha in 1962, was often quoted as saying: “I am a grassroots worker. I am raised from the ground up and my roots are still firmly rooted here (in Himachal Pradesh).”
In the 2017 assembly elections, Virbhadra Singh and his son Vikramaditya Singh won their constituencies, even though their Congress party lost power.
Known for his generosity, wit and charm, picking out errors in bureaucratic notes and redrafting them on his personal typewriter, Virbhadra Singh was considered one of the greatest leaders of the state, single-handedly fighting and leading many political battles, even when he was eighty years old.
–IANS
VG/PGH