Amitabh
Shukla | Shimla
Riding
a strong anti-incumbency wave and a positive vote for change, the BJP on Monday
wrested the hill State of Himachal Pradesh from the Congress and will form the
next Government.
Though
Himachal affirmed its faith in the policies of the NDA Government and gave
thumbs up to the intensive campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the
electoral strategy of BJP chief Amit Shah, it, however, gave some jitters to
the party. BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal bit the dust. He
was defeated in Sujanpur from where he was contesting for the first time and
not from his traditional stronghold of Hamirpur by protégé-turned rival
Rajinder Rana.
After
Dhumal’s defeat, some of his camp followers among the newly elected MLAs,
offered to vacate their seats for him. BJP’s victorious candidate from Kutlehar
Kunwar Vikram Singh offered to vacate his seat for bringing in Dhumal to the
State Assembly. A section of his supporters floated conspiracy theories as he
was allotted a constituency, which was altogether new for him.
A
Dhumal supporter said being a disciplined soldier of the party, he accepted to
contest elections from any seat given. He said late announcement of Dhumal’s
name as CM candidate has cost him personally as he could not focus on his own constituency
but in the entire State where he ensured the success of BJP.
Dhumal,
who contributed significantly in the overall success of the party along with
his son and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, accepted his defeat and said that the
result was unexpected and the party would do introspection. He congratulated
the winners and party workers for the spectacular victory.
The
defeat diluted the sweet taste of victory as the party will have to look for
someone else, most probably, Union Minister JP Nadda, the choice of the central
leadership, as the next head of the Government. The loss of state BJP president
Satpal Singh Satti also was not music to the ears of BJP supporters.
Defence
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and party leader Narendra Tomar will visit Shimla
to get the opinion of the newly elected legislators in a day or two to decide
on the new name.
Interestingly,
the State continued with the three-decade-old tradition of voting out the
incumbent Government even as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh continuously
maintained in the campaign that anti-incumbency was not an issue.
What
has come as a personal silver lining for the septuagenarian six-time Chief
Minister is the victorious electoral debut of his son Vikramaditya Singh from
Shimla Rural constituency. His own victory from Arki constituency was hardly a
surprise even though he never went there to campaign after filing his
nomination papers.
Singh
accepted the defeat. “I own responsibility for the defeat…,” he said in the
state Capital, adding that he respects the mandate of the people as it was
their prerogative of making a party victorious. Singh, who single handedly,
campaigned in the State, however, indicated that he got little support from the
central leadership of the party.
Congress
cabinet Ministers GS Bali, Kaul Singh Thakur, Prakash Chaudhary and Thakur
Singh Bharmouri faced defeat in the polls.
Another
surprise was the victory of CPI(M) after two and a half decades in the State
from Theog, a seat which was represented by Vidya Stokes in the last Assembly.
The area made headlines after a schoolgirl from the area was gangraped and the
issue turned into anger against the Virbhadra Singh Government and the
opposition successful cornered him for deteriorating law and order situation.
The
tally of 44 for the BJP and 21 for the Congress in the 68 member House, almost
two thirds majority in the State, suggested strong grip of BJP following its
sweep in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 where it had won all the four seats. In
the outgoing House, the Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively. (December
19, 2017)
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