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.
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