BJP storms back to power in Himachal sans Dhumal
With its CM candidate losing, party looks for new face; Jai Ram Thakur, JP Nadda among frontrunners
The BJP returned to power in Himachal on Monday with an emphatic victory, tearing 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 CPM bagged one seat. The remaining two went to Independents.
Despite its spectacular victory, the BJP was left red-faced as its CM candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal lost his seat. Dhumal lost to his one-time protégé-turned-rival Rajinder Rana 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”.
Dhumal, 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 Seraj legislator Jai Ram Thakur and Union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda emerging as frontrunners. A former state BJP chief, Thakur, 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 is learnt to have been called by the party leadership to Delhi. Considered close to BJP president Amit Shah, Nadda 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. Varinder Kanwar, who won from Kutlehar in Una district, has offered to vacate his seat for the ex-CM. BJP state unit chief Satpal Singh Satti, Gulab Singh Thakur, Ravinder Ravi and Maheshwar Singh are among the party leaders who failed to win their seats.
As for the Congress, CM Virbhadra , his son Vikramaditya, a first-time candidate, and state Congress chief Sukhvinder Sukhu won 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 ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries including Kaul Singh Thakur, Thakur Singh Bharmouri and Sudhir Sharma suffered defeat.
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.
HIMACHAL CONNECT
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.
ALL GUNS BLAZING
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 oldest 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 veteran 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