The BJP in Himachal Pradesh, which declared its first list of candidates a few days back, is releasing its second list. The delay in the announcement of the second list has been caused by disagreements over two seats in Kangra district.
The two Cabinet ministers of the party, Mr Ravinder Ravi, a loyalist of chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, and Mr Ramesh Dhawala, a confidant of senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar, are locked in a serious battle for the tickets for the constituency of their choice.
The BJP was supposed to have declared its second list on Friday. Instead, it brought out the rift within the party when it failed to reach a consensus on these two seats. After delimitation, Mr Ravi lost his constituency and now wants to shift to the constituency of Mr Dhawala.
However, Mr Kumar, who belongs to Kangra district and has considerable influence in the district, is against Mr Ravi removing his loyalist from his seats.
So annoyed was Mr Kumar with the proposal of Mr Ravinder Ravi getting a ticket from Mr Dhawala’s seat that he skipped the core group meeting of the party in Shimla on Friday.
In an indirect criticism of Mr Ravi, Mr Kumar said: “One leader directly became a legislator. For the past 20 years he was a legislator and a minister. Now he has become so impatient to get the ticket that he doesn’t want to work for the party without getting any post.” In June, Mr Kumar had lodged a protest with BJP president Nitin Gadkari against Mr Ravi. He had even threatened to quit all party posts.
Now party sources inform that there is a growing feeling in the party leaders that the BJP is losing the edge it got by declaring the first list early.
There are voices within the party that it should declare other tickets if there is no consensus on these two seats for the time being.