BJP storms back to power in Himachal sans Dhumal
FIELD WIDE OPEN With its CM candidate losing, party looks for new face; Jai Ram Thakur, JP Nadda among frontrunners
SHIMLA: The BJP returned to power in Himachal on Monday with an emphatic victory, tea ring down the Congress.
The BJP, which won 44 of 68 seats in the assembly, came within touching distance of a twothirds majority. The Congress trailed with 21 seats and the C PM bagged one seat. The remaining two went to Independents.
Despite its spectacular victory, the BJP was left red-faced as its CM candidate Pr em Kumar D humal lost his seat. Dhumal lost to his one-time protégé-turned-r ival Raj in der Ran a of the Congress by 1,919 votes in Sujanpur constituency after trailing him throughout the counting. The result was declared late in the night due to time taken in counting of “service votes”.
D hum al, who accepted defeat, said the result was unexpected. “The party’s victory is more important for me than my own defeat,” the crestfallen two-time former CM told reporters.
His defeat has left the CM’s post wide open with Se raj leg isl atorJai Ram Th a ku rand Union health minister Jagat Prakash N add a emerging as front runners. A former state B JP chief, Th ak ur, who has won his seat five straight times, has the backing of some senior functionaries of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Another factor that may weigh in his favour is that the party has swept Mandi district he belongs to. He isle arnt to have been called by the party leadership to Delhi. Considered closet oBJ Pp resident Am it Shah, N add a was in the running for the CM’ post till the time the party named Dhumal.
However, a section of the state BJP is still rooting for Dhumal. Var in der Kan war, who won from Kutlehar in Una district, has offered to vacate his seat for the ex-CM. B JP state unit chief Sat pal Singh Sat ti,Gu lab Sing h Th ak ur, Ravinder Ravi and Maheshwar Singh are among the party leaders who failed to win their seats.
As for the Congress, CM Virbhadra, his son Vikram ad it ya, a first-time candidate, and state Congress chief Sukhvinder Sukhuw on their seats comfortably. Battling factionalism and anti-incumbency, the party lost 1% from its vote share of 42.81% in 2012, but most of its minister sand chief parliamentary secretaries including Kaul Singh Thakur, Thakur Singh Bharmouri and Sudhir Sharma suffered defeat.
SHIMLA: A robust election campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that effectively tapped into the undercurrent of anti-incumbency against the Congress worked for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh.
While the party was expected to beat the faction-ridden Congress in the state where governments have traditionally changed every five years, the scale of its victory – 44 out of 68 assembly seats – reflects a groundswell of support. It is also a huge morale booster ahead of the assembly elections in key states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka, next year.
The resounding triumph has come in the face of a high-decibel campaign run by the Congress against the goods and services tax (GST), derisively dubbed as ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ by then Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi (now president), and demonetisation. Besides giving a push to Modi’s economic reforms agenda, it also means the party has wrested another state from the Congress, further expanding its political footprint.
HIMACHALCONNECT
Modi, who is ably backed by BJP president Amit Shah’s micromanagement skills, is being credited for the party’s comeback in the hill state. A master of rhetoric, Modi, who was party affairs in-charge here about two decades ago, knows the political pulse of the state. He targeted chief minister Virbhadra Singh on corruption and misgovernance, using innuendo and sarcasm.
Modi addressed half-a-dozen well-attended rallies, playing on his ‘connect’ with the people. However, the strike rate in assembly segments where his rallies were organised may not please the PM as the party candidates failed to win their seats in half of them.
ALLGUNSBLAZING
The BJP also drafted most of its big guns from the start. Campaign rallies were addressed by Shah, central leaders Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani, besides chief ministers Yogi Adityanath and Trivendra Rawat.
The blitzkrieg overshadowed the Congress, capturing the imagination of change-hungry voters in the state. The ruling party’s campaign was led by the six-time chief minister – the old- est candidate in the fray – with most of his ministerial colleagues and other state leaders, including Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, remaining confined to their constituencies.
Unlike the BJP, the Congress central leaders played the supporting cast and left the chief minister on his own. While Rahul Gandhi held only three rallies towards the closing stages of the campaign, several others did not go beyond Shimla. Virbhadra did put up a spirited fight, but it was not enough to counter its rival’s formidable election machinery.
QUICK THINKING
The BJP was also quick on its feet, changing strategy. The party leadership had decided not to name the CM candidate as there were multiple aspirants. It did not want a repeat of 2012 when infighting between Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, a vet- eran leader, saw rebel candidates in 18 constituencies and derailed the campaign. When Virbhadra, who was named by the Congress as its CM face, repeatedly raked up its failure to announce an alternative face, the party changed tack, declaring Dhumal as the pick.
However, that strategy did not work, as Dhumal lost from Sujanpur to his one-time lieutenant-turned-rival Rajinder Rana even though the party scored a spectacular win. Earlier, Shah had pressed into service his troubleshooters such as Thawar Chand Gehlot, Mangal Pandey and JP Nadda to placate the rebels and prompt action was taken against those who did not fall in line.
MODI, WHO WAS THE BJP AFFAIRS INCHARGE IN HIMACHAL PRADESH TWO DECADES AGO, ADDRESSED HALFADOZEN RALLIES, PLAYING ON HIS ‘CONNECT’ WITH THE PEOPLE