BJP aims to pacify CM detractors

Desperate to break the jinx in Himachal Pradesh politics, where Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress government are formed alternately, and also to ensure that it does not meet the same fate as it did in Uttarakhand, BJP’s poll campaign in the hill state is giving prominence to projects initiated by former chief minister Shanta Kumar. Mr Kumar, who is considered to be leading the dissident camp and is miffed with chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s style of functioning and also with the ticket distribution process, had recently publicly criticised the way candidates for the coming Assembly polls are being selected by the party. While Congress is already giving a tough time for the BJP, the saffron party is also worried about dissidents and rebels leaders. BJP currently has 41 seats in the 68-member state Assembly.
Also, Himachal Lokhit Party, formed by BJP’s dissident leaders earlier this year, is adding to BJP’s troubles. Led by former MP Maheshwar Singh, HLP is contesting all 68 Assembly constituencies. Earlier this week, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Khushi Ram Balnatha, who was associated with the saffron party for four decades, quit it to join HLP.
Sources disclosed there are other leaders also who are miffed with the ticket distribution process and rebels who did not get ticket, who might work against party’s interest. BJP lost Uttarakhand to Congress by just one seat and the blame was put on dissident and rebel leaders.
In a bid to ensure that Uttarakhand does not get repeated in Himachal Pradesh, where elections are scheduled on November 4, the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership is working overtime to placate the CM’s detractors in the state unit of the party. Perhaps this is the reason that Mr Kumar is being given prominence in the poll campaign when there are other senior leaders in the state unit.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/194654" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-1a8eb123017ae3b90dd77592586a469a" value="form-1a8eb123017ae3b90dd77592586a469a" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86322686" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.