DHARAMSALA: Kangra is the largest district in Himachal Pradesh with 15 seats in the 68-member Assembly. As discontent brews within the ruling BJP, it won’t be easy for it to win in these seats. The feeling in the saffron camp is that nominations have been given to ‘outsiders’ in at least five of the 15 seats. Those who did not get the ticket are contesting as Independents.
Kangra is the nerve centre of state politics, so the route to forming the government here passes through the district. The district gave Himachal its first non-Congress CM in 1977 when BJP formed the government under Shanta Kumar. It has since remained a BJP fortress, with Kumar becoming the CM twice. Kangra has 30% OBC population that can alter the outcome in eight seats. The BJP’s problems in the district started after Kumar decided to retire from electoral politics as the party did not groom a second line of leadership.
The party is facing rebellion in Dharamsala, Kangra, Dehra, Indora and Fatehpur seats. The BJP has allotted the ticket to AAP turncoat Rakesh Chaudhary from Dharamsala and denied re-nomination to sitting MLA Vishal Nehria. The result is that the party’s block unit rebelled in Dharamsala, with BJP block president Anil Chaudhary and the party’s district ST Morcha chief Vipin Nehria filing their nomination as Independents. While Chaudhary withdrew his papers on Saturday after party placated him, Nehria remains in the fray.
Pawan Kajal was the acting state president of Congress. After he switched sides, BJP has given him the ticket from Kangra as he wields influence among the OBC community. Thus the Zila Parishad member and BJP leader Kulbhash Chaudhary is fighting as an Independent. But the saffron party is banking on the personal vote bank of Kajal who fought the 2012 elections as an Independent and won. He then joined the Congress and contested the 2017 polls and again won. Many local BJP leaders, including former MLA Sanjay Chaudhary, have opposed Kajal. Former MLA Surinder Kaku is the Congress candidate and is banking on the support of government employees.
The BJP has also tried to strengthen itself by inducting Independent Hoshiar Singh from Dehra Assembly segment but was forced to shift Jawalamukhi MLA Ramesh Dhwala to Dehra as it faced rebellion. Now Singh again quit BJP and filed papers as an Independent. Meanwhile, BJP MLA Ravinder Ravi has been given ticket from Jawalamukhi seat.
BJP candidate from Dharmashala, Rakesh Chaudhary, says the party will win at least 12 seats from Kangra. “There is no rebellion. Everyone, except Vipin Nehria, has been placated. The rebels are not grassroots leaders, so they will have hardly any impact,” he adds.
Gone are days of raja-rani: Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched an attack on the “ma-beta” Congress party, questioning how individuals facing charges can give a good government in the hill state. His words appeared to be a dig at Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, as well as Pratibha Singh and her son Vikramaditya Singh in Himachal. Addressing a public rally in support of Bhattiyat MLA and BJP candidate in the Assembly polls, he urged people to re-elect the saffron party to power, breaking the state’s tradition of not repeating a government. “There is democracy in the country and gone are the days of raja-rani. It is the time of common people. We have to elect a government that works for the development of the state,” he said.