Political temperature increases in Shimla

Amitabh Shukla | Shimla

As you drive up the hills, you can see plenty of revellers from the plains of Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana either accompanying you, ahead of you or following you in all sorts of vehicles. They obviously want to escape from the heat to the cool climes of the Queen of Hill stations, the summer Capital of British Raj — Shimla.

Even though you still require half sleeve sweaters in Shimla, the political temperature in the State Capital has increased many notches. The star campaigners may be missing Shimla, campaigning as they are in other parts of the State, but almost everyone here is talking about the poll battle. The discussion at the Ridge, Mall Road and the Indian Coffee House invariably boils down to the question — who will become the next Prime Minister of the country?

Elections have already been held in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi — considered the catchment area for the tourism industry of Shimla and Himachal Pradesh. So the tourists from these areas merely ask the dhaba owner or those sitting near the tea stall about the trend in Himachal Pradesh and the ‘Modi wave’. They tell the tourists about the problems which Shimla city is facing and how they will vote for those who promise to solve them.

“This is a city designed for twenty-five thousand people by the British. Now the population is around 2.5 lakh. In fact, there are around 31 thousand registered vehicles here now,” said Avtar Singh, a Sikh, who runs a small general store in Lower Bazar. He says he bought a car a year ago and struggles everyday to park it after closing shop to reach is house in Sanjauli, around five kms away. “Why doesn’t the Government put a blanket ban on purchase of vehicles by Shimla residents?” asks Avtar, insisting that solving the parking mess was the biggest challenge for Shimla at this point.

Avtar Singh is not alone who detests politicians from promising the moon but not delivering. His neighbour is Santosh Thakur, who has a tea stall and also sells cheap and good quality stuffed paranthas. “Just look around Shimla. On 10 km either side from the heart of the city, you will only find vehicles lined on the roads. There is no space and no attempt is being made to create parking space for locals,” he said, adding that the charge of Rs 200 for 24 hours of parking cannot be paid by the locals.

Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation Tikendra Panwar merely says that parking facilities are being created. But the bigger problem which the locals insist is the refusal of repeat tourists to come to the State capital. “Once you come to Shimla on your car and fail to find a parking, you simply leave the city never to come back. This has started affecting us and we no longer have the type of peak season we used to have earlier,” said, Ramesh Negi, a newspaper vendor, who sits all day near the historic Municipal office on Mall Road to sell newspapers and magazines.

Both the BJP candidate Virendra Kashyap and his Congress rival Mohan Lal Brakta are promising that they will “look into the issue.” But the locals know that Shimla town is a small part of the entire constituency having 17 Assembly segments and around 11.5 lakh voters and the two candidates are not serious. As polling day, May 7 approaches, both the BJP and Congress are equally matched here as out of 17 Assembly seats, BJP has seven while Congress holds on to eight. The remaining two seats are with Independents and as per tradition, they are supporting the ruling party.

Shimla is the only reserved seat in the State with SC population of 35 per cent. The Rajputs too are 35 per cent while 23 per cent are Brahmins Virender Kashyap, 63, of BJP won for the first time in 2009 after several losses from the seat. He is banking on “Modi wave” and only talks about Narendra Modi in his campaign. Not surprisingly, Congress candidate Mohan Lal Brakta, 48, MLA from Rohru, rubbishes all claims that there was a “Modi wave”. He talks about Virbhadra Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in his election speeches and meetings. (May 4, 2014) 

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/political-temperature-increases-in-shimla.html