Assembly elections 2012: Virbhadra Singh steered Congress to a crucial victory in Himachal Pradesh

SHIMLA: It was a gritty, age-defying performance by a veteran of many battles. Virbhadra Singh, 78 — facing near-isolation within his party and beset with allegations of graft — pulled out all stops and steered Congress to a crucial victory in Himachal.

Singh himself won from Shimla (rural) constituency, defeating his BJP rival Ishwar Rohal by 19,033 votes. Just months ago, the ‘raja’ of erstwhile Bushair princely state had been almost written off after his resignation from the Union cabinet in June. This came after charges of graft were framed against him in the Himachal Pradesh High Court, based on an audio CD dating back to 1989. He was allegedly taped on the phone discussing kickbacks from industrialists with his wife and a senior bureaucrat.
Full Coverage of Assembly Elections 2012
Then, just weeks ahead of the polls, BJP leader Arun Jaitley flew into Shimla to heap charges on Virbhadra, linking the unearthing of a diary with the initials “VBS” during raids in the office of a steel company and Virbhadra’s LIC accounts. But his larger-than-life image in the state eventually helped his cause. “He is god to us. When he had to approve a private power project in our district, we installed his idol and used an oracle to tell us what his opinion was,” remarked a 52-year-old supporter, Tikender Singh, outside Virbhadra’s palatial home here.