Kamlesh Thakur’s candidacy shakes up Dehra bypoll, challenges BJP’s strategy
Dehra: Making a choice to field Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Thakur, as party candidate for the July 10 bypoll at Dehra was not tough, but it was certainly a decision that put the Opposition BJP plans off-track electorally.
The campaign for three bypolls at Dehra, Nalagarh, and Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh came to an end on Monday. It’s now a poll battle that will shape the politics of Kangra—state’s biggest district—in the coming times for incumbent Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.
The elections were necessitated by the resignation of three independents—Hoshiar Singh (Dehra), K.L. Thakur (Nalagarh), and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur)—who had voted for the BJP Rajya Sabha candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 poll and later joined the BJP even before their resignations were accepted by Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.
Though the Congress has already consolidated its position in the 68-member state Assembly by winning four of six bypolls held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls on June 1, winning the upcoming elections is no less significant for Sukhu.
It’s he whose prestige is at stake in the poll because of his wife Kamlesh Thakur contesting the seat, which falls in Kangra district. A wife-maker who had been behind Sukhu’s political journey like a rock is contesting the poll for the first time. She is native to Dehra, thus has a claim to being ‘daughter of Dehra.’
Though this poll at Dehra made Kamlesh Thakur a candidate, Sukhu’s larger game is to invade Kangra district, considered politically sensitive in Himachal Pradesh’s bipolar politics.
“It’s said the route to Shimla’s power passes through Kangra. Whichever party wins the maximum number of Assembly seats in Kangra eventually rules the state,” says R.S. Bali, Congress MLA and Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Board.
Kangra has 15 Assembly seats, of which 10 were with the Congress till Sudhir Sharma got elected from Dharamshala on the BJP ticket in the recent bypoll, reducing the Congress numbers to nine. If Kamlesh gets elected, the Congress will strengthen its position again to pre-2024 conditions.
It was during this year that Sukhu faced a threat to his government when six Congress rebels revolted against him but paid a price for their decision because of their disqualification from the House. The Congress strength dropped to 34, one short of a majority, after the disqualification.
Though Sukhu faces no threat to his government as he has improved his tally in the House, raising it to 38.
“With three more Assembly seats, the Congress will exceed its earlier number. It’s because the people rejected the MLAs who sold their soul to the BJP and got suitcases. It was the first time in the state’s history that independents also resigned their seats because they got their pockets stashed with cash. The people are asking questions as to why they imposed bye-elections at Dehra, Nalagarh, and Hamirpur,” asks the Chief Minister.
His slogan in Dehra is ‘elect the Congress MLA and CM.’ Once Kamlesh Thakur is elected, Dehra, which had remained neglected and ignored, will get the full attention of the government.
“By electing the Congress candidate, you are choosing the CM,” he says.
Kamlesh Thakur is facing Hoshiar Singh, a two-time MLA who comes from a background as a successful businessman. Twice he tried for the BJP ticket to contest polls in 2017 and 2022, but because of the BJP’s conflict politics, especially the influence of former union minister Anurag Thakur, a five-time MP from Hamirpur (of which Dehra is part), his dream to contest from the BJP had crashed. Yet he made his entry to the state Vidhan Sabha without any party tag.
Now that he has joined the BJP, though much against the wishes of Anurag Thakur and overriding the rightful claims of two BJP contenders—Ramesh Dhawala and Ravinder Ravi, both BJP heavyweights—Hoshiar Singh is facing a tough hill task against Kamlesh Thakur.
Nevertheless, the BJP has mobilised its entire organisational machinery to see that the party candidate makes it to the state Assembly and the party’s position is improved in the House.
The BJP had made a clean sweep in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, winning all four seats.
“We will win all three bypolls. The Sukhu government has failed on all fronts and has not fulfilled its promises. The victory in these elections will create ripples in the Congress and also the government,” says Jai Ram Thakur, the Leader of Opposition.
But the BJP is unable to find answers as to why the independents resigned and imposed bypolls at Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh—a sign of betrayal, as Kamlesh Thakur alleges.
