Bypolls in Himachal litmus test for CM
Shimla: Ahead of next year's Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and ruling BJP, which had swept the Congress out of power in 2017, will be facing a litmus test on October 30 as the by-elections will be held in one Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the by-elections to three Assembly seats — Jubbal-Kotkhai, Arki and Fatehpur in the districts of Shimla, Solan and Kangra respectively.
While the Jubbal-Kotkhai seat in the state's apple belt had fallen vacant due to death of BJP senior Narinder Bragta, a former horticulture minister, Arki seat in Solan district was won by former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the 2017 Assembly polls, when he had shifted to this constituency from Shimla (rural), where his son contested and won for the first time.
In Kangra Fatehpur seat—a traditional congress stronghold was represented by Sujan Singh Pathania, a veteran party leader who died early this year.
But, of all four by-elections, the BJP will be facing an acid test in Mandi—the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The seat had fallen vacant following the demise of two-time MP and party's Brahmin face Ram Swaroop Sharma.
Mandi parliamentary seats once had remained the fortress of six-time former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who was elected from here four-time, thrice remaining union minister. However, in 2014, BJP's new face Ram Swaroop Sharma defeated Pratibha Singh, Virbhadra Singh's wife.
It's thus quite obvious that Pratibha Singh is warming up for entering the electoral battle to avenge her defeat by riding on the sympathy wave of her husband and revive the powerful legacy of 'Raja Sahib' as Virbhadra Singh was fondly called in the state. The PCC, which is already in the shambles, also wanted to gamble on the popularity of Virbhadra Singh, whose death had made millions of his sympathisers and supporters reach-out to the family, and joined his last rites at Rampur.
Rampur being the hometown of late Virbhadra Singh is part of the Mandi Parliamentary constituency, where Pratibha Singh would prove as a heavyweight on the BJP during the polls, beside Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, Bharmour (tribal belt) and even Mandi and Kullu districts.
She had already made her choice for contesting the seat known to the party high command as the PCC was backing her candidature openly.
The BJP which, initially had proposed to test on sitting Cabinet minister Mohinder Singh, has not yet finalised the candidate. There are several names going around including that of Kargil war hero Brigadier Khushal Thakur, former MP Maheshwar Singh, Cabinet minister Govind Thakur and Chairman of HP Cooperative milk Federation Nihal Chand, a brahmin.
State BJP president Suresh Kashyap said the BJP is all prepared for the polls and names of the candidates will be announced shortly as an exercise has already been done on various names. If the poll outcome goes against the BJP, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur may be at the receiving end and the BJP will be compelled to revisit its preparedness for what it calls Mission Repeat 2022.
