Will Himachal Congress do tit-for-tat and field BJP rebels in Assembly byelections?
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TNR Desk
The volatility and unpredictability of politics is on display in Himachal Pradesh where Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu finds himself struggling to be on the throne after having assumed the top post for the first time 15 months ago.
As the Sukhu government’s strength has come down from 40 to 34 in the 68-member Assembly and byelections are due for six seats on June 1, a question being widely debated in political circles is whether the Congress too would do a tit-for-tat and make BJP rebels its candidates.
The six disqualified Congress MLAs who had cross-voted for the BJP in the recent Rajya Sabha poll for the lone seat in Himachal joined the BJP before Holi. The saffron party has now fielded all the six Congress rebels in the byelections to the seats vacated by the disqualified MLAs–Lahaul-Spiti, Gagret, Barsar, Dharamshala, Kutlehar and Sujanpur–causing much heartburn in its own leaders.
Former MLA from Lahaul-Spiti Ramlal Markanda has already resigned from the BJP and announced to contest the elections. The road ahead for Ravi Thakur, who left the Congress and joined BJP, in Lahaul-Spiti is not going to be easy.
A large number of Markanda’s supporters also announced their mass resignation. If sources are to be believed, if the Congress offers the ticket to Markanda, he could consider it.
After giving the ticket to Congress turncoat Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, BJP candidate in the 2022 Assembly elections Captain Ranjit Singh said that he would contest the election at any cost. He said what was the benefit of giving the ticket to such people who changed parties for their personal benefit without caring for the society. He said that the BJP had insulted the ex-servicemen by cutting his ticket. Rana had defeated Ranjit Singh by a margin of 399 votes last time.
In Gagret, former MLA Rakesh Kalia has already resigned from his post after Congress rebel Chaitanya Sharma joined the party. There is talk that he may now join the Congress. Here the only relief for the BJP is that Rajesh Thakur, the candidate for the 2022 Assembly elections, has supported the BJP high command’s decision.
After KL Thakur’s return to the BJP in Nalagarh, former MLA Lakhwinder Rana’s ticket is sure to be cut. However, the resignation of all three independent MLAs has not been accepted yet. But after KL Thakur’s entry into the BJP, Lakhwinder Rana became emotional on the stage. He alleged that the party had betrayed him.
In Kutlehar too, former BJP minister Virendra Kanwar is “hurt” by the party’s decision to field Davinder Kumar Bhutto. When there were discussions of removing Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur from his post in the previous government, Virendra Kanwar’s name was being considered for the CM’s post. After the entry of Congress rebels, the future of such a veteran leader is also at stake. Similar dissent is being experienced in Dharamshala where Rakesh Chaudhary is miffed at the BJP ticket to Sudhir Sharma and has announced that he would contest the byelection at any cost.
