BJP misses a brave face in Himachal Pradesh
Party insiders say without a chief ministerial candidate, victory may not be as easy as they imagine.
Himachal Pradesh has not generated the animated debate and discussion that Gujarat has among talking heads and the plebeians, although both states will vote together in December, wrapping up a politically tumultuous 2017.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the Lahaul and Spiti Assembly constituencies shortly, which vote ahead of the rest of the state because the district becomes snow-bound by early November.
Himachal is a dot on the map of India. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has high stakes in it, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party President Amit Shah kicking off their campaigns. Modi has a personal connect with the hill state. As BJP general secretary in the 1990s, he was the Himachal “prabhari” (minder) and became close to former chief minister (CM) Prem Kumar Dhumal, who facilitated his visit to the Rohtang Pass.
At 73, Dhumal might not get a third shot at chief ministership (he held the post for two terms) because Modi has shipped out those above 75 from active politics and is unlikely to dispense with a self-formulated rule for a friend. But Dhumal hasn’t given up. “The Congress’s candidate is 83 years,” he remarked, with a chuckle.
Rahul Gandhi recently declared Virbhadra Singh, the octogenarian, as the CM contender for a seventh time.
Regardless of whether seniority is a criterion, Dhumal sounded exuberant about a BJP comeback. “The state is swamped with antiincumbency and corruption. The CM and his wife (Pratibha) are out on bail (in a disproportionate assets case). Himachal was known as ‘dev bhoomi’ (the abode of the gods). Now it’s dubbed as ‘apradh bhoomi’ (den of crimes),” he alleged, illustrating his charge with two serious crimes that triggered massive street protests. One was the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Shimla in early July, leading to the arrest of top state policemen by the CBI in the process of investigating the custodial death of a suspect. The other was the killing of a young forest guard, allegedly by the local mafia in cahoots with the police in June this year, which too compelled a CBI probe.
“Under the Congress, we are ruled by the forest, drug, liquor, and mining mafias and not the CM. He has packed the administration with retirees refusing to work,” remarked Dhumal.
Unbeknown to many, the BJP’s masterstroke was to soften its bickering heavyweights including the Kangra MP and former CM, Shanta Kumar. A sulk from any of them meant sabotage. Although Kumar is not a member of the margdarshak mandal, a body Modi created for the BJP’s elders, he threw in his lot with L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi on intra-party disputes in the past. As the leaders mulled over projecting a CM candidate, Kumar’s mug vied for attention with those of Dhumal, central minister J P Nadda and state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti, in the posters plastered all over the state. Kumar is expansive about a BJP win. “In 1990, we won 46 seats despite the fact that the BJP was not India’s biggest party and Modi was not PM. We weren’t in power at the Centre. The Congress’s health was better, there were no corruption charges against its CM candidate. With the objective circumstances in our favour, we will beat that record. It doesn’t matter whether we have a CM candidate. People are crying for change,” he said.
Maheshwar Singh, a past BJP rebel, recently merged his breakaway Himachal Lokhit Party with the BJP.
The BJP has its sceptics who believe that a victory is not quite the cinch their seniors imagined.
“The important factor is whether we can take advantage of Modi’s leadership and transform the election into a Modi versus Virbhadra battle,” a young MP said. He disregarded a query on whether a case of alleged influencepeddling involving Shah’s son, Jay, could impact the BJP’s anti-graft tirade against the CM and his legatees. “There’s nothing in it because there’s no bar on a citizen on doing legal business,” he maintained.
A central party official said that the selection of candidates was of “paramount importance”. “There’s a huge clamour for tickets. There’s no guarantee that our sitting MLAs will get another chance. In Himachal, the Congress and BJP have strong local networks. Voters have to endorse a candidate. The best of national leaders cannot compensate for a bad choice,” he said.
He stressed that the BJP would have to “sustain” its campaign after an “effective” start. “We have to take it forward by focusing on constituency issues, district issues, state issues, and then national issues,” he said.
Some are concerned about the fallout of the goods and services tax regime on small traders, despite the tweaks in the rules, making life easier for them. What the state BJP waits for with bated breath is the unveiling of a CM face because “without one, the campaign will be incomplete”.
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