‘Don’t think Himachal has the mood for another party’
In the run-up to the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections at the end of this year, the focus is on the incumbent BJP’S main challengers: the Congress, which tasted success in recent bypolls, and the Aam Aadmi Party, looking to repeat its stellar performance in Punjab. Chief minister
tells that the AAP is unlikely to play a spoiler and the main battle remains against the Congress.
Thakur Jairam Sunetra Choudhury You have said that AAP cannot be successful in the hills. Why do you say that?
In a mountainous region like Himachal, you have to be acquainted with the area and they have no idea how things work there. Their Delhi model may have worked, but they don’t have a longterm model for being successful. The model cannot be replicated everywhere... It worked in Punjab, but in Himachal, other parties have failed. Mayawati tried, Samajwadi Party tried, Sharad Pawar tried but none of them succeeded. Late Pandit Sukhram even tried launching his own party and though he managed 4-5 seats, he had to wind up too. So, I don’t think Himachal has the mood for another party.
Would you accept, however, that AAP does emulate some of your party’s qualities? For instance, nationalism.
It’s true that people do equate BJP with nationalism and the Anna Hazare movement emulated that. They also took up BJP’S anticorruption call, which is one of our party’s foundational themes. They were able to get mileage from this strategy and influence people. However, they are getting exposed as they have no real ideology or commitment. In Delhi, their government doesn’t really have any major financial strain as law and order is handled by the Centre and civic work is also not their responsibility. In Punjab, they said they will give ₹1,000 to each woman but where will this money come from? They promised 300 units of free electricity but they have no extra power to distribute. So, they will be exposed very soon and similarly, they are trying to mislead voters in our state but people are politically very sharp here.
Then who’s your challenger?
I am of the opinion that we are contesting against the Congress. That’s because you can see the state of AAP in HP. The entire state unit had to be dissolved. They can’t even decide who to make the head of the state unit, they don’t trust anyone. If there is no organisation, no leadership, how can they work?
Congress has chosen Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh as the state unit head. What impact will this have?
Congress has made an effort. Pratibha Singh is the wife of Congress’ tallest leader in the state. Now that he is no more, Congress is trying to get the sympathy vote. However, there’s a difference and Virbhadra Singh can’t be compared to anyone else. They are trying to mobilise all together but they have four working presidents and they all have CM aspirations, so it is chaotic.
What led to their win on all
There was a certain degree of miscalculation on our part. First, the Congress was supposed to give the ticket to someone else and at the eleventh hour, they gave it to Pratibha Singh. It became a sympathy poll for Virbhadra Singh, and Mandi was part of his area as an erstwhile royal... although they won by 1% or just 4,000 votes. So, it was a big lesson for us. We realised that we hadn’t focused on polling as much as we should have and the turnout wasn’t satisfactory. This time around, it’s not a bypoll and the elections will be on issues. One of them is the fact that the BJP is at the Centre too and Modi ji has a special connect with the state.
We’ve seen a change of CMS in Tripura and other states. Is it unnerving for CMS to have that as a possibility?
No, no, we don’t take that stress on ourselves, we just do our work. In Himachal, we worked as you can see from the work done during the pandemic. All development works have been fulfilled. In the four-and-a-half-year tenure, the Opposition has only been able to raise a couple of issues because they have to. There isn’t much anger against the government. However, since 1985, no incumbent government has won in the state. So, it is a challenge but we feel that we are up to it... The party high command has also clarified that we will fight the polls under Jairam Thakur’s leadership.
As an RSS man, how do you view the Gyanvapi issue?
We are very clear that we were wronged there. Now there is evidence emerging and so it is just getting exposed. While we don’t want to force anything, things are organically moving towards the truth. This is a sub judice matter.