Battle lines drawn in HP as Cong, BJP name candidates

BJP banks on old guard; Cong sticks to ‘one family, one ticket’ rule in first list

SHIMLA: The die is cast for the November 9 Himachal assembly elections with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declaring all 68 candidates and the Congress announcing names of its 56 nominees.

While the BJP retained old faces, the Congress too has fielded all its sitting MLAs, barring irrigation and public health minister Vidya Stokes ,89, who offered not to contest elections this time.

Former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and state party chief Satpal Singh Satti are among the BJP candidates. The party is silent on declaring the chief ministerial candidate.

The list also includes names of Anil Sharma, Congress veteran Sukhram’s son, who quit his party recently to join the BJP.

While former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal will contest from Sujanpur instead of Ham ir p ur, CM Vi rb had ra Singh has thrown his hat in the ring from Arki in Solan district instead of S him la( rural ), these at, sources say, he has kept for his son Vikramaditya Singh, whose name is likely to be announced in the party’s second list.

State Congress chief Sukhvin- der Singh Sukhu will contest from Nadaun, All India Congress Committee secretary Asha Kumari from Dalhousie and Rajya Sabha member Viplove Thakur from Dehra.

Union health minister JP Nadda, who was seen as one of the choices for the post of chief minister if the saffron party comes back to power, will not contest the assembly elections.

Besides Shimla (rural) and Mandi, the Congress will declare candidates for Theog, Shahpur, Balh, Sarkaghat, Bhoranj, Kutlehar, Palampur, Manali, Kullu, Mandi and Nalagarh in the second list.

In the first list, the party gave a go by to the kin factor.

The party objected tickets to Nikhil Rajour, former MLA and Viplove’s brother. It is learnt that Sukhu was interested getting a ticket for his wife Kamlesh from Nadaun while forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmauri was keen to field his son Pankaj Pakhretia.

The first list did not mention the name of Champa Thakur, daughter of state health minister Kaul Singh Thakur, who was likely to contest from Mandi.

SHIM LA/ DH A RAMS HAL A: The Bharatiya Janata Party( B JP) released a list of 68 candidates, consisting mostly of old faces, for the Himachal Pradesh assembly polls on Wednesday.

The saffron party, which lost the 2012 elections due to infighting, reportedly faced an uphill task in selecting candidates as influential leaders demanded tickets for their loyalists till the very last moment. Though it had initially planned to select nominees based on a survey meant to determine the “winnability” of candidates, the plan was derailed at the final stage due to lack of consensus among state leaders.

The party had held a series of studies in this regard, and national president Amit Shah also visited the state on several occasions to assess the situation.

Though the state B JP retained a majority of its old legislators, it did not go by the recommendations of party vanguard Shanta Kumar–bar ring a few in Kan gr a district – to a large extent. The party opted for state Ma hi la Mo rch a chief In du Go swami over Shanta loyalist Pr ave en S harm a, who had won the 2008 assembly elections.

However, the party accommodated two of the veteran leader’ s other loyalists – Kishan Kapoor and Ramesh Dhawala–to placate him.

The BJP’s act of holding back its list till the last moment, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national president Amit Shah meeting state leaders in Delhi to finalise the names, also added to the confusion.

The BJP cleared the names of 51 candidates in the first go, but struggled to fin ali se other names. The party reportedly delayed the

list for fear of a rebellion during the elections, and Shah personally engaged with senior leaders like Shanta Kumar, former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur to ensure that there’ s no such occurrence.

Dhumal is also upset over not getting an upper hand in ticket allocation.

The party’s attempt to decimate Shanta Kumar could further add to its woes in the state’s most significant district–Kan gr a – which has 15 assembly segments.

However, Union health minister Jag at Park ash N add a was able

to get a few tickets for his loyalists.

The BJP has largely allocated tickets on the basis of feedback from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and right wing students’ organisation, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

OLD CANDIDATES RETAINED

The party has preferred to retain old faces – sitting legislators as well as candidates who lost the 2012 elections by a whisker.

The B JP has a strength of 29 in the 68- member legislative assembly. The party has given tickets to

26 sitting legislators this time, replacing BK Chauhan in Chamba, Govind Ram in Arki and Anil Dhiman in Bhoranj.

The party also decided to give tickets to 26 old faces who lost the 2012 elections.

NO CHIEF MINISTERIAL FACE

With Dhumal and Nadda still at each other’s throats, the BJP believed it would only be prudent to not declare the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the run-up to the elections.

It will fight the polls faceless, as was done during the Uttar Pradesh elections.

MODI’S PUSH FOR WOMEN

The state BJP had to rework its list of candidates after Modi expressed displeasure over its failure to project sufficient female faces. Though the list of candidates had sitting Shahpur MLA Sarveen Chaudhary and Rita Dhiman from Indora, the Prime Minister demanded that at least 10 women candidates be fielded this time. This resulted in the inclusion of Shashi Bala, Jyoti Sen, Indu Goswami and Kamlesh Kumari into the list. Sen, a close relative of chief minister Vi rb had ra Singh, had joined the BJP only recently.

In 2012, the party had allotted tickets to six women

MISSION‘ CONGRESS BREACH’ UN SUCCESSFUL

Hoping to repeat its Uttarakh and strategy of wooing Congress members, the BJP successfully lured animal husband ry minister Anil Sharma and his father, veteran leader Sukh Ram, into the saffron fold. However, the party failed to notch any further wins.

Nevertheless, speculation is rife that three to four sitting legislators may still shift allegiance to the BJP. Balbir Verma, an independent, has already crossed over.

CASTE AND YOUTH FACTORS

Barring 17 reserved constituencies, a majority of the candidates in the list are from the dominant upper castes( Br ah min sand Rajputs ). However, the party kept Kangra district’s caste factor in mind while picking Sarveen Chaudhary and Ramesh Dhawala–both belonging to the backward ca ste. Incidentally, a majority of the dozen youths who were granted tickets this time round were members of the ABVP.