No move to have a 'working CM' in Himachal: Ministers

SHIMLA: Terming it as absurd and mischievous, seven of the nine cabinet ministers in the Virbhadra Singh cabinet have dismissed reports about a move to appoint a 'working chief minister' in Himachal Pradesh because of the incumbent reportedly not being in good health.
Led by senior minister Vidya Stokes, ministers Sujjan Singh Pathania, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Mukesh Agnihotri, Sudhir Sharma, Prakash Chauhdary and Dhani Ram Shandil jointly issued a statement stating that there was no move to appoint a working chief minister in the state.Interestingly, two powerful ministers in the cabinet, Kaul Singh Thakur and G S Bali are not signatories to the statement issued by other cabinet colleagues about the health status of the chief minister.
The seven ministers who have issued the statement state that Virbhadra Singh was hale and hearty and there was no truth in reports that he was going abroad for any treatment. "All such rumours were figment of imagination and a handiwork of frustrated and sick-minded people who were out to somehow create confusion in the minds of people," the ministers said in the joint statement.
Taking strong exception to media reports about there being a move to appoint a 'working chief minister', the ministers rubbished it as totally false and baseless. "The reports in a section of media appear to be a conspiracy by certain vested interests with a motive of destablize the popular government", the statement mentioned.
Reports about the chief minister not being at his best have been circulating in political and bureaucratic circles here for quiet sometime now, but he has been attending official duties relentlessly, even walking in the snow to get to office.