Congress and BJP in a lively battle
Rakesh Lohumi
The political temperature
is at its peak in the cool
climes of Himachal
Pradesh which is
witnessing a lively
electoral battle between
the ruling Congress and the opposition
BJP, the two main contenders for
power, once again.
The going has been always tough
for the ruling party in the hill state
where anti-incumbency plays a
decisive role in Assembly elections.
The politically aware electorate has
been invariably voting out the
government of the day and as a result
no party has managed to retain power
since 1985.The scenario is no different
this time and the Congress faces an
uphill task in the battle of ballot
scheduled for November 9.
With no mass leader to match the
popularity of six-time chief minister
Virbhadra Singh the Congress high
command has decided to go to polls
under his leadership despite strong
opposition from Pradesh Congress
Chief Sukhvinder Singh, Transport
Minister G.S.Bali, veteran leader from
Kangra Vijay Singh Mankotia and some other leaders. The BJP has
decided not to project any leader and
it is solely banking on the popularity of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi for
winning the elections.
Desperate for a win in an otherwise
dismal national political scenario, the
Congress has pursued dynastic politics
to the hilt, granting tickets to the kins
of many senior leaders. The high
command also gave a go by to its
norm of one family one ticket in the
process. State youth congress chief
and son of Virbhadra Singh, who has
been granted ticket from the Shimla
(Rural) constituency, tops the list of dynastic candidates. Virbhadra Singh,
who won the seat in 2012, has shifted
to adjoining Arki segment in the Solan
district. He has, thus, paved way for his
son's entry into electoral politics.
In Mandi district, Champa Thakur,
daughter of Health Minister Kaul
Singh, has been given ticket from the
Mandi seat in place of Anil Sharma,
son of veteran leader Sukh Ram who
crossed over to the BJP on the eve of
polls. Ashish Butail, son of Speaker
B.B.Butail, is contesting from
Palampur and Vivek Sharma, son of
ex-Deputy Speaker Ramnath Sharma,
has been fielded from Kutlehar. Senior
leader Chander Kumar is back in the
Jawali constituency which his son
Neeraj Bharati won in 2012.The
Congress high command has been
able to forge unity by accommodating the supporters of the warring leaders
in ticket distribution and declaring
Virbhadra Singh as the leader.
The BJP has continued with its
strategy of taking Congress leaders
with good electoral prospects into its
fold to ensure success in key
constituencies. Its biggest catch has
been Anil Sharma who was the Rural
Development Minister in the
Virbhadra Singh Cabinet. Other
Congress leaders who have been
granted BJP ticket are Pawan Nayar
from the Chamba seat, Pramod
Sharma from Shimla (Rural) and Vijay
Jyoti Sen from Kusumpti. The party has denied tickets to four sitting MLAs
and some other who unsuccessfully
contested the last assembly poll. Rikhi
Ram Kaundal, a former minister has
been denied ticket from Jhanduta,
B.K.Chauhan from Chamba, Gobind
Sharma from Arki and Anil Dhiman
from Bhoranj. In all, there are 21 new
faces among the nominees.
More importantly, the BJP high
command has shifted former chief
minister and leader of opposition from
Hamirpur to Sujanpur constituency
and denied ticket to Shanta Kumar
loyalist Praveen Sharma from the
Palampur constituency sending a clear
signal that the party is supreme.
The denial of tickets to prominent
aspirants has triggered revolt in both
the parties and efforts are on to quell
discontent in the cadres. Shanta
Anil Sharma
Kumar had openly expressed his
anguish and the high command sent
Union Health Minister, who is among
the front runners for the coveted post
of chief minister, to pacify him. The BJP
has involved prominent leaders who
have been denied tickets in various
panels set up for election
management.
The state has been in the election
mode for the past one year and the
Congress government in the state and
the BJP-led government at the Centre
have been busy announcing benefits
and launching various new schemes
and projects in the state to woo the
electorate.
Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi has
himself addressed three massive
rallies at Mandi, Shimla and Bilaspur in
recent months. The last rally at
Bilaspur, during which he laid
foundation stone of PGIMER and two
other projects, was held days before
declaration of election. Earlier he had
launched the Udan scheme to
promote low cost air travel from
Shimla. In between Union Minister for
Road Transport and Highways, Nitin
Gadkari, announced upgradation of 61
roads to national highways which will
increase the length of highways almost
three-fold from 2002 km in 2014 to
5900 km.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has
been busy inaugurating projects,
laying foundation stones, announcing
opening of schools, colleges and other
institutions for the last almost two
years. He even declared Dharamsala
as the second capital to win over the
people of the Kangra , the biggest and
politically most significant region of
the state.
A number of other populist
decisions like grant of unemployment
allowance to educated youth and regularisation of illegal structures and
encroachments, which make a
mockery of governance, will have far
reaching consequences for financial
health and safety of the people in the
earthquake prone hill state. The BJP
has been making such illegal demands
a political issue to please the
electorate and a clever politician
Virbhadra Singh disarmed it by promptly implementing these.
Shanta Kumar
As in the last assembly poll, the BJP
has made corruption charges against
Virbhadra Singh and his family as the
main poll plank. Prime Minster Modi
himself hit out at the chief minister at
a public rally by stating that in
Himachal the government was on bail.
The arrest of Tilak Raj, an officer of
he Industries department in a bribe
case, has provided ammunition to the
BJP to attack the Congress. The party is
also accusing Congress of gross
financial mismanagement which has
landed the estate into a debt trap with
outstanding loans touching Rs 50,000
crore. A number of heinous crimes in
quick succession like the Kotkhai rape
and murder case, the gruesome killing
of a forest guard Hoshiar Singh in
Karsog and daring daylight shooting of
youth in Solan have enabled it to
mount a pointed attack on the
deteriorating law and order situation.
The denial of tickets to
prominent aspirants has
triggered revolt in both
the parties and efforts
are on to quell
discontent in the cadres.
Shanta Kumar had
openly expressed his
anguish and the high
command sent Union
Health Minister, who is
among the front runners
for the coveted post of
chief minister, to pacify
him. The BJP has
involved prominent
leaders, who have been
denied tickets, in various
panels set up for
election management.
The controversial demonetization
exercise and implementation of GST
have provided potent issues to the
beleaguered Congress which had been
at the receiving end all through. The
BJP was riding high on the Modi wave
but there had been a discernible
change in the public sentiments in
recent months mainly because of
hardships caused by these two
decisions. The BJP has lost the high
moral ground on issue of corruption
by taking the son of convicted Sukh
Ram into the party-fold. The party has
lost some edge on these counts on the
eve run up to election and the contest
is no longer a one-sided affair as it
appeared until recently.
However, keeping in view the past
trends the odds are stacked against
the Congress and it will be a Herculean
task for it to stop the Modi Juggernaut.
It also lacks requisite resources and a
well-oiled election machinery to match
the BJP for effective campaigning.
The BJP is already in damage
control mode and talk of further
relaxing the GST norms and slabs is
on.
Currently, there are 67 MLAs,
Congress (35), BJP (28) and
Independents (4), in the 68-member
Vidhan Sabha. The Congress won in
1985, 1993, 2003 and 2012, while the
