Despite discontent among senior leaders, BJP again fields 3 turncoats for Himachal Assembly bypolls
Despite its failed experiment of trying to get Congress turncoats elected on its own ticket in the June 1 Assembly bypoll, the BJP has again gone ahead with fielding three recent party inductees for the July 10 byelections in Dehra, Nalagarh and Hamirpur.
The BJP announced its list of candidates late Thursday, fielding former Independent MLAs Hoshyar Singh Chambyal from Dehra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and Krishna Lal Thakur from Nalagarh. The trio had resigned from the same seats recently to get re-elected on the BJP ticket.
In the byelections to the six Assembly seats on June 1, the BJP had fielded six Congress turncoats whose disqualification from the Vidhan Sabha had necessitated the bypoll. But only two of the six former Congress MLAs could defend their seats on the BJP ticket. In the rest four constituencies, Congress leaders, among them two first-timers, emerged victorious.
After experiencing the setback, it was expected that the BJP would tread cautiously while selecting candidates as the choice of turncoats was leaving the party’s own cadre disappointed.
The BJP’s dilemma was whether to field the former Independent MLAs despite facing opposition from senior party leaders like Ramesh Dhwala and Ravinder Ravi in Dehra, Lakhvinder Rana in Nalagarh and Narinder Thakur in Hamirpur. The discontent was palpable during the induction of the three Independent MLAs, which culminated in protests and appeals for intervention.
In the 2022 Assembly poll, Hoshyar Singh, Ashish Sharma and Thakur had won as Independent MLAs. All the three had joined the BJP on March 23, a day after tendering their resignations to the Speaker, which necessitated the byelections in the three seats.
With the acceptance of their resignations on June 3, the Vidhan Sabha’s strength had fallen to 65 members, with the Congress bolstering its tally to 38 seats while the BJP holds 27.
