A statue of the late Virbhadra Singh — Himachal Pradesh's most consequential Congress Chief Minister — was unveiled in Sarahan on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, as Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu used the occasion to draw a sharp contrast between a united Congress and what he called a fractured BJP.

From the Ridge to Sarahan: Virbhadra Singh's memorials take shape

The Sarahan event is the latest in a series of statue unveilings honouring Virbhadra Singh, who served as Himachal Pradesh's Chief Minister across multiple tenures from the 1980s until 2012 and passed away in July 2021. An earlier, high-profile unveiling at Shimla's Ridge Maidan had drawn the Congress's national leadership, with Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra standing alongside Sukhu on the dais — a deliberate display of solidarity that the party has been keen to keep in public memory. Sukhu recalled that gathering pointedly: 'Uss avsar par poori Congress party bhi maujood thi' ('On that occasion, the entire Congress party was present').

Sukhu's direct challenge to Jairam Thakur and Harsh Mahajan

The CM did not stop at tribute. He aimed squarely at BJP leader and former Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, saying Thakur himself was 'entangled in factionalism' while the BJP was split into five factions — a claim he said was evidenced by BJP leaders publicly naming each other in internal disputes. The allegation carries political weight: Himachal BJP has periodically been racked by visible differences between camps loyal to different senior leaders, though the specific count of five factions is Sukhu's own assertion.

He also took on Rajya Sabha MP Harsh Mahajan directly, asserting seniority: Sukhu noted that he had become president of the NSUI (the Congress's student wing) and held other party posts before Mahajan even entered politics. It is a calibrated reminder that his roots in Himachal's Congress machinery run deep — and predate those of the critics now questioning him.

Why legacy politics still dominates Himachal Pradesh

Virbhadra Singh's shadow over Himachal Congress remains enormous. His decades in office gave the party its most enduring electoral identity in the state. Invoking his memory — in stone, and with the Gandhi family present — signals that the current Congress government sees continuity with that legacy as its strongest political asset. The two-phase statue unveiling, from the state capital to a hill town, is not incidental; it plants the Virbhadra narrative in both urban and rural Himachal ahead of any future electoral cycle.

Sukhu's aggressive counter-punch on factionalism is equally calculated. By turning a memorial ceremony into a platform for political attack, he keeps Congress on the front foot, forcing BJP to respond to charges of internal division rather than press its own lines of attack. The stones are set — the political battle they anchor is very much alive.