Political temperature rises in the cool hill state of Himachal

Six Assembly by-polls within 15 months of the Congress rule in Himachal Pradesh, simultaneously with Lok Sabha elections on June 1, have lent much heat to the campaign in the cool hill state.

 

The sequence of events, right from rebellion in Rajya Sabha poll by six Congress MLAs, defiance of party whip in Vidhan Sabha and then their disqualification from the Assembly has created a lot of bad blood in politics in HP.

 

What added fuel to the fire was the BJP's move to get the Congress rebels to join the BJP after disqualification and then giving them party tickets at the cost of BJP’s old time leaders, including former ministers, in those six constituencies.

 

Everything happened so fast after the cross voting in Rajya Sabha poll on February 27, and not only political parties, but the people are also perplexed at the changed political equations in the state. 

 

What raises eyebrows at this moment is that the whole episode is the outcome of a mishandled situation—Congress leadership did not try to placate the rebels in their party and moved their disqualification by Speaker for defying whip within just one day, although it strategically failed the rebels and the BJP in their combined strategy to topple the Congress government.

 

Presently, in the strength of 62 MLAs in the state Assembly, Congress has 34 MLAs, including the Speaker, and BJP has 25. Three Independents have also resigned from the Assembly and have joined BJP, but their fate hangs in balance as the matter on their resignations is pending, even after they approached the High Court.

 

The ruling Congress, which has nothing to lose in terms of power in the Lok Sabha polls, even if BJP repeats the performance of 4/4 seats on the lines of 2014 and 2019, is obviously more keen on victory in Assembly by-polls to stabilise the state.

“We have seen a fight for the CM's post within the party after elections over the last some decades. We also saw the single largest Congress party after 1998 Assembly polls manipulating support of one BJP rebel to form the government. It lasted for 13 days with the BJP rebel finally withdrawing support from Congress to help his parent party BJP and Himachal Vikas Congress form the government with a razor thin majority. But we have never seen such a drama, where six Assembly seats are vacated so early due to factions within the ruling party, three more Independents’ resigning and the opposition eyeing power in just 15 months. see the campaign how badly it is shaping up as the by-polls approach,” said a retired political science teacher, P K Sharma. 

Sharma said people in Himachal are politically literate and it would be interesting to see as to how they take this quick political incident of rebellion in the ruling party and BJP’s role in it. “The trend would also impact the Lok Sabha poll results in the state,” he added.

 

The six Assembly segments going to by-polls are -Sujanpur and Badsar in Hamirpur district, Gagret and Kutlehar in Una district, Dharamshala in Kangra district and tribal Lahaul Spiti constituency.   

 

The campaign on ground is actually getting so bitter and personalised in the by-polls, with social media also spoiling once followed decorum in the political battlefield in a state like Himachal Pradesh.

 

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has based his whole campaign on the aggressive accusation that the rebels were ‘saleable’ and the BJP played the money game to buy them.

His initial references ‘kale Naag’ and ‘bikau versus tikauu’ for the rebels and ‘dhanbal versus janbal’ for an unethical attempt by the opposition party to destabilise the Congress government despite a five years mandate by the people in 2022 had kicked up much controversy.

 

The rebels hit back at the Chief Minister for his bitter tongue with personalised allegations and the BJP for his ‘non-performance’.

 

The rebels and their supporters have since talked harshly of Sukhu and his government. They have alleged that the Chief Minister was targeting them in the government and was ignoring their areas. “We had to leave Congress in the interest of people in our constituencies,” said Sudhir Sharma, BJP candidate from Dharamshala. He is the son of former Pradesh Congress Committee Chief and former minister, late Sant Ram.

 

The Congress men, however, contend that the party is only telling the people the truth about all what happened.

“People of Himachal must know that the BJP was hand in glove with these Congress rebels to topple the government in 15 months, playing the money card. They won on Congress ticket in 2022 and are now contesting on BJP ticket. Why should people give them vote?,” said Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Vice President, Naresh Chauhan.

 

Newly elected Rajya Sabha MP of BJP, Harsh Mahajan ( former Congress minister who owed allegiance to former Chief Minister, late Virbhadra Singh and had switched over to BJP before 2022 Assembly polls) said the Congress Chief Minister tried to corner the Virbhadra faction in ruling party badly.

 

“So the repercussions. Virbhadra and Sukhu did not go along well in Congress. Yet, I used to get Sukhu’s works done from Virbhadra Singh, who had a large heart. But it is not the case of Sukhu.”  

 

It is pertinent to mention that Congress rebels, three-time MLA, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur and former minister, Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, both of whom were left out in the cabinet formation that ultimately led to revolt by them, were believed to loyalists of former Congress CM Virbhadra Singh