Shimla: Secretary of Himachal Kisan Sabha and a party whole timer Onkar Shad was elected as the new State Secretary of Himachal unit of the Communist Party of India- Marxist here yesterday. The elections were held after the party’s three day conference that ended in the presence of central observers M.A. Baby, a CPI-M Polit Bureau member and A.Vijay Raghwan, a former Member of Parliament and incharge of Himachal. The three day conference was inaugurated by Mr. Prakash Karat, party secretary.
Mr. Shad (55) was a known SFI activist of Himachal Pradesh University earlier and belongs to Kullu district. He was heading the Kissan Sabha and was also Shimla district secretary of the party for a long time. A top researcher and a Ph.D in Botany, who left the prospects of becoming a university teacher and opted to become a party full-timer in 1984.
He has also fought Loksabha elections against Mr. Virbhadra Singh from Mandi parliamentary seat in 2007. Soft-spoken Mr. Shad is also known for his mature organizational skills and academic competence in the party. He has replaced Mr. Rakesh Singha who had completed his tenure and couldn’t be re-elected because of the recent amendments in the party constitution.
The party also elected an eight member State Secretariat and a 22 member State Committee. It also chose a team of five members to attend the 21st Party Congress in Vishakhapatnam in April 2015.
KY Singh is a political observer and a senior journalist with an interest in a diverse set of issues related to Himachal Pradesh and other mountain states. He lives in Shimla.
