Poaching threat: BJP takes winners to ‘secret’ location

We decided to keep all the councillors away from Congress that can do anything after being rejected by the people of Shimla.

SHIMLA:Electioneering may have come to an end for political parties with BJP scripting history by winning the maximum seats in Shimla municipal corporation election, but it has another reason to worry.

Fearing that Congress could poach saffron-supported winners, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken all its 18 victorious candidates to some undisclosed locations. In a rare step, it was for the first time in municipal election history that any party kept their councillors in “safe zone”. All the 18 BJP candidates are said to have relocated to Panchkula and Chandigarh, with phones of few either switched off or not “reachable”. After reaching close to magic number, BJP reached out to the independent candidate Rakesh Sharma, who was expelled from the party after he contested election against its supported candidate. BJP needed one more member to achieve the majority and Rakesh Sharma, after the leadership promised him a “big post”, extended his support to the saffron party.

Congress, if supported by three independent and a communist, will still be still two short of majority. Its leaders are also trying to gain the support of other winners. Virbhadra’s son Vikramaditya Singh has even posted on his Facebook page that some BJP-supported candidates were in touch with him.

The names of mayor and deputy mayor candidates are yet to be disclosed but in the meantime, BJP is leaving no stone unturned to “protect” its assets.

BJP has refrained from showing its cards and is likely to disclose its strategy on Monday.

“We decided to keep all winners away from Congress. Congress can do anything after being rejected by the people of Shimla,” a senior BJP leader said, requesting anonymity. By getting 40% votes, BJP-supported candidates won 18 seats while Congress with 35% votes won 15 including independents.

BJP can name Kusum Sadret, who won from Annandale ward, as its mayor candidate while Rakesh Kumar for deputy mayor, as promised. However, a faction within BJP wants deputy mayor seat to be given to some senior councillors. Hence, names of Sanjeev Kumar and Shailender Chauhan are also in the reckoning.