In a sign of peace in the Himachal Pradesh unit, which has been battling infighting in the Congress, Minister of State Vikramaditya Singh has withdrawn his resignation, hours after submitting it. On Tuesday, in the Rajya Sabha elections, six Congress MLAs had cross-voted in favor of the BJP candidate, due to which the party had to face a crushing defeat.

Amid a possible threat to the existence of the Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu government, Mr Singh had announced his resignation from the post of Public Works Minister on Wednesday morning. The minister had accused Mr Sukhu of being “negligent” towards the MLAs and disrespecting his late father and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Saying he would not be pressured to accept his resignation after the day’s dramatic developments, Mr Singh said, “I have spoken to the observers who were sent by the party high command. The organization is more important than an individual.” Keeping this in mind, it is the responsibility of every individual to strengthen the organization. In the larger interest of the party and in the unity of the party, I will not insist on my resignation which was already rejected by the Chief Minister today.”

When reporters asked him if this meant the threat to the government was over, the minister said, “In the beginning there was no crisis. It was a creation. If people work together and adopt a positive attitude then every A solution can be found.” We are here to serve the people of the state and governing is the way to do that. It is everyone’s responsibility to strengthen the government and by doing so serve the people.

Congress’s Himachal in-charge Rajeev Shukla, who was with Mr Singh when he made the announcement, also said the government has a majority and there is no threat to it.