Amid a political crisis in Himachal Pradesh, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday snubbed a journalist for asking whether the party had an inkling of the Himachal Pradesh dissidence and that’s why Sonia Gandhi chose Rajasthan over Himachal Pradesh for the Rajya Sabha election. Condemning the question as twisted and baseless, Jairam Ramesh said this is not a question coming from a journalist but from Amit Malviya. Malviya, the BJP’s IT cell chief, indeed posed the same question on X on Tuesday when six Congress MPs cross-voted and sank the ship of senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha election. “Did Sonia Gandhi know something that Abhishek Manu Singhvi wasn’t told? Did the Gandhis ambush Singhvi,” Malviya posted. Malviya also shared Jairam Ramesh’s response on Wednesday and said, “Denial is nothing but a confirmation. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is no saint, has been ambushed here.”

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‘Sorry, but you can’t ask this’

Jairam Ramesh said this is not a proper question to ask as the decision was taken by the party high command. “I am sorry but this is absolutely wrong. This is not your question. This is Amit Malviya’s question,” Jairam Ramesh said during a press conference on Wednesday. “Then you can also ask why Sonia Gandhi did not contest from Karnataka, from Telangana. Revanth Reddy also wanted Sonia Gandhi to contest from there. Siddaramaiah ji also said the same. But there was no official confirmation. It was not official that Sonia Gandhi would contest from Himachal Pradesh. Everybody wanted Sonia ji to contest from their state. It was her decision to contest from Rajasthan. This is a shaitani (mischievous) argument that one contested from another state because we knew our MLAs would desert us,” Jairam Ramesh said.

Sonia Gandhi was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan unopposed while the Congress faced an embarrassing defeat in Himachal Pradesh because six of its MLAs cross-voted. BJP’s Amit Malviya posted on X that Himachal Pradesh should have been a natural choice for Sonia Gandhi to contest the Rajya Sabha election as the Gandhis “have a holiday villa” in the state but she went to Rajasthan.

While Congress lost in one Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh, chief minister Sukvinder Singh Sukhu said the BJP’s conspiracy to topple the Congress government in the state failed. Congress sent Bhupesh Baghel, DK Shivakumar and Bhupinder Hooda to Shimla as observers. They have been tasked with meeting all the rebel MLAs and then submit a report to president Mallikarjun Kharge.