Himachal ex-minister Virender Kanwar unlikely to contest from Kutlehar as BJP pacifies him
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TNR Desk
The Himachal Pradesh BJP appears to have pacified its former minister Virender Kanwar who had raised the banner of revolt over allotting the byelection ticket from his constituency Kutlehar to Congress rebel Davinder Kumar Bhutto.
Sources said former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur played a crucial role in persuading Kanwar, who had earlier announced that he would contest the byelection at any cost. He had even stayed away from a function organised by the BJP in Kutlehar to welcome Bhutto into the party and also to introduce him as the party’s candidate. Jai Ram is learnt to have visited Kanwar’s house to pacify him.
Kanwar had earlier said that the people of his constituency were “upset that the BJP nominated the Congress rebel Bhutto in his place from Kutlehar”. “The party is above everything, but the people of my constituency are disappointed and want that the decision of the party should be reviewed by conducting a fresh survey on popularity in the area. Bhutto worked like a dictator in the past 15 months of his tenure as MLA and has lost his goodwill,” he was quoted as saying by a news agency.
The former BJP minister had even sounded the poll bugle and started a public relations campaign to contest the byelection. “I will contest the election at any cost,” he had said.
Kanwar, who remained Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister in the previous Jai Ram Thakur government, was defeated in the 2022 Assembly elections by first-time MLA Davinder Kumar Bhutto of the Congress. Kanwar had represented Kutlehar constituency for four consecutive terms in 2003, 2007, 2012 and 2017.
Kutlehar is a BJP bastion which Bhutto won for the Congress in 2022 after a long gap of 37 years. Ramnath Sharma was the last Congress MLA in 1985. Bhutto had defeated Kanwar by 7,579 votes in 2022.
Bhutto is among the six Congress rebel MLAs — other five being Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret), ID Lakhanpal (Barsar) and Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti) — whose disqualification from the Assembly has necessitated the byelections in their respective seats. All of them had joined the BJP, which has nominated them to defend their seats.
The BJP is facing a similar situation in Lahaul-Spiti where another former minister, Ramlal Markanda, resigned from the BJP along with the party’s entire district unit. He is miffed at the BJP fielding Ravi Thakur in the byelections.
