Amitabh Shukla | Mandi
Royalty could be a passé and
Kings and Queens confined to the history books but in
Mandi, it is the other way round. Ever since the seat was carved out six
decades ago, it has been a stronghold of royal families.
The reverence of the people of
this vast constituency towards royalty has ensured a relatively easy outing for
Pratibha Singh, the wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the erstwhile ruler
of Rampur-Bushehar. While Virbhadra Singh is known in the entire State as Raja
Sahib, the Congress candidate and his wife is Rani Sahiba and their 23-year
-old son Vikramaditya Singh is Tikka Sahib.
In this belt no one calls the
three by their names. They are only known as Raja Sahib, Rani Sahiba and Tikka
Sahib. In fact, there is no attempt by the trio to shrug off this baggage of
royalty and the suffix of Sahib and Sahiba are integral to their personality as
they know that this is what pays electorally in the region.
Pitted against Pratibha Singh is
actually a commoner in the real sense, a typical aam aadmi, who is fighting the
royalty on a BJP ticket and not that of Arvind Kejriwal’s party. Ram Swaroop
Sharma is the quintessential commoner, who has never contested an election, got
the party ticket by default and is from the RSS. His entire campaign is based
on the tales of “Raja (they) and Runk (we)”, the King and the commoner and
tells the people that the days of royalty were over long time back and they
need to vote for a common man. This appeal is finding some resonance amongst
the youth, particularly the first time voters.
“Former kings and queens can
never feel what the common people of the constituency want and need. They are
only into false promises and forget the people after winning the polls,” he
repeats in almost all his elections meetings. Like other BJP candidates,
another name which he invokes in every meeting is that of Narendra Modi. “People
of the country and Mandi want to see him as the Prime Minister. They will vote
for a better future of their children, their country and their state,” he
hoped.
Pratibha Singh won a bye-election
less than a year ago in June last year after her husband became the Chief
Minister and vacated the seat. Her victory margin over the BJP candidate was an
impressive 1.36 lakh votes and even the critics of the Congress admit that
despite a Modi wave in the country, it would be quite a task for the BJP novice
to bridge this huge gap. Though the BJP prime ministerial candidate addressed a
well attended rally here on April 29 at the Padal Grounds but at best many here
think that this could reduce the margin of victory of Pratibha Singh.
Despite being on a strong wicket,
the 57-year old, Rani Sahiba is not taking the polls lightly and has been
campaigning for well over a month now. She is being supported by her husband
and son on and off but is on her own in the tough terrain of the constituency,
many areas of which are still snow covered and difficult to reach. She reminds
the people about what the Congress Government has done in the State and how an
IIT and medical college came in the constituency due to their efforts.
For her, development is the only
mantra and she hardly talks about the central leaders of her party.Being a
woman, she refers to the commitment of 33 per cent reservation of her part but
has not made the election personality centric. “We have always done the
politics of development and our campaign is not personality oriented,” she
said, in a contact program near the temple city
of Mandi.
The Congress candidate occasionally
refers to the “Rights” which the UPA Government brought but mostly talks about
the local issues and promises a paradigm shift in welfare politics. She also
lists the steps she initiated in her short tenure and that of her husband
before her. Interestingly, even as BJP was facing a problem of plenty in rest
of the country, the biggest problem for the party on this seat was to find a
suitable candidate. It declared Sharma’s name only when it could not find
anyone else to take on the Rani Sahiba. Sharma’s name was last off the block in
Himachal Pradesh and that conveyed the message loud and clear that it was not
the candidate but BJP contesting and trying to cash in on the “Modi wave”.
Like in the other four seats of
Himachal Pradesh, Mandi too has 17 Assembly segments and is dominated by the
Rajputs (40 per cent), Brahmins (28 per cent) and SC (22 per cent). Unlike the
Hindi heartland, caste has never been a factor in Himachal Pradesh as the two
main parties have support cutting across caste lines. As the campaign is coming
to an end, BJP workers are telling the people that Pratibha Singh is contesting
merely to keep the seat warm for her 23-year old son Vikramaditya, who cannot
contest the polls due to the age factor.
The last minute thrust has taken
the sheen out of the Congress candidate but given the past trend, support base
of her party and royal image, she has reasons to feel confident. (May 5, 2014 )
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