Rebels fell Dhumal in HP, anti-incumbency takes toll

Amitabh Shukla / Shimla

Himachal Pradesh lived up to its electoral tradition of voting out the incumbent Government as the Congress rode on anti-incumbency sentiments and wrested power from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Inability to project its achievements and failure to make good governance an election issue, factionalism, faulty ticket selection and over a dozen rebels ensured that the ruling party was defeated.

Congress benefitted from the micro-level poll management of the five-time Chief Minister of the State, Virbhadra Singh, even though there was nothing in favour of the party at the macro level.

The party put up a united face, putting their factional fight behind and won 36 of the 68 seats in the hill State. While the BJP got only 26, six of the seats went to Independents and other parties.

The Opposition of BJP against FDI in retail did not go well with the voters in the apple belt of the State, many of whom felt that this would benefit the fruit growers. Not surprisingly, Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta lost Jubbal Kotkhai, in the heart of the apple belt of the State, though he brought in several schemes for the horticulturists.

Even the increase in the prices of diesel, putting a cap on subsidised LPG cylinders and the promise of the BJP to provide induction heaters to the voters had few takers in the State.

The charges of corruption against Congress leaders at the Centre and against Virbhadra Singh in the State had few takers as Singh himself won by a huge margin. Mega scams like 2G, Coalgate, etc hardly had any impact in the State which has a high literacy rate.

Credited as the architect of the Congress victory, the 78-year-old Singh is expected to be the next Chief Minister of the State after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party by the end of this week despite being chargesheeted in a corruption case which led to his resignation from the Union Cabinet six months ago. Of the 36 party MLAs, 28 are his supporters and this could settle the issue in his favour.

“Congress president Sonia Gandhi sent me to the State with a purpose to defeat the BJP. We have done that,” he said. Asked whether he would be the Chief Minister of the State, Singh indicated in the affirmative.

“Our party president never overlooks the wishes of the people,” he said, hinting that the wish of the people was to see him as the Chief Minister for the sixth time. For record, Singh said the victory of the Congress was a resounding endorsement of the flagship programmes of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.

A dejected Prem Kumar Dhumal said the party would analyse the reasons for defeat. The party’s figure was down to 26 from 41 in the 2007 polls and even the margin of the Chief Minister’s win was reduced in the anti-incumbency sentiments.

“We will introspect where the party lacked in serving the people. The Government had tried to benefit all sections of the society besides accelerating the pace of development in the State,” he said. Party veteran Shanta Kumar refused to go into the reasons of defeat merely saying that in a democracy people’s mandate has to be respected.

BJP leaders said that the State Government failed to publicise the welfare schemes and instead focused on negative campaigning in which targeting Virbhadra Singh consistently boomeranged.

Moreover, instead of the organisation and collective decision making, half a dozen leaders took the decisions without involving the grassroots level workers. In addition, they said that the Government employees and their families, who constitute a large segment of the voters, ditched the ruling party.

Congress leaders and workers, however, said in the battle of personalities, the aggressive Virbhadra Singh with a royal lineage defeated the mild leader Prem Kumar Dhumal who hails from the middle class.

“The royalty has won, Virbhadra has won,” remarked a Congress leader at the State party headquarters. (December 21, 2012) 

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