Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh gave his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat, 24 hours after the Congress party suffered a miserable loss in the Assembly polls. The dramatic election that witnessed vote counting till late in the night, resulted in the BJP capturing power with 44 seats in the 68-member assembly.
The party's presumptive chief minister PK Dhumal, however, lost to Congress' Rajinder Rana. This means that the BJP will have to appoint someone else. Party chief Amit Shah said that their highest decision making body, the parliamentary board would decide on who would be Himachal chief minister. With state big shots like Himachal BJP unit chief Satpal Satti, Ghulab Singh Thakur and Ravinder Ravi losing the election, choice for the pick will not be easy. Even with half a dozen contenders, Union Health Minister JP Nadda has emerged as the frontrunner. Other potential candidates include five time MLA from Seraj constituency Jairam Thakur and Hamirpur MP and Dhumal's son Anurag Thakur.
