Shimla: Voted out of power, Congress in Himachal Pradesh has postponed its February 22 post-mortem of the assembly election outcome, apparently due to heightening of the feud between rival factions owing allegiance to former Chief Minister V B Singh and PCC chief Viplov Thakur.

The meeting was put off for a later date due to prior engagement of state party president Viplov Thakur and other senior state leaders, HPPCC spokesman Kuldeep Rathore told PTI today. The next date of the meeting will be decided later, he said.

Virbhadra Singh had been to Kerala for more than a month after the electoral drubbing to regain his health. The defeat had sharpened infighting between the factions led by Singh and Thakur with the later stating that it was defeat of the Congress government and not of the party in the hill state. Singh had assailed Thakur for the statement.

The party high command prevailed over MLAs to elect Vidya Stokes, Singh's detractor, as leader of opposition in the assembly. Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, in a bid to infuse new energy in youth organisations of Congress, has decided to personally interview candidates for the post of president of NSUI in the state.

Source : PTI