NADDA, THAKUR FAVOURITES AS BJP LOOKS FOR A CM IN HIMACHAL

SHIMLA: Union minister JP Nadda and five-time legislator Jairam Thakur have emerged as frontrunners to be the next chief minister of Himachal Pradesh after Monday’s shock defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party’s projected CM candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal.

The BJP wrested power from the Congress, winning 44 seats in the 68-member state assembly. But the party was scrambling on Tuesday to pick a new chief minister as the 73-year-old Dhumal lost to Rajinder Singh Rana, a former protégé who had joined the Congress.

Though party sources say Dhumal is not out of the running, his defeat has thrown open the leadership race and brought the spotlight on Union health minister Nadda, a Rajya Sabha member with roots in the hill state.

Nadda’s proximity to the party leadership is viewed as a plus point for him, though several leaders believe that the BJP top brass will choose the CM from among its newly elected MLAS.

Thakur and several senior BJP lawmakers in the state are also in the reckoning. A former rural development and panchayati raj minister in the state, 52-year-old Thakur and is known to be close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and to BJP president Amit Shah.

“Whatever the party decides, I will do. I am happy that there is going to be a BJP government in Himachal Pradesh,” Thakur said on Tuesday.

HT The Metro trial run on the new Magenta line ended in an accident on Tuesday when a train, as seen in this picture clicked by a bystander, broke through a wall at the Kalindi Kunj depot. The train was being moved up a ramp for washing when it rolled...