Youth power ousts Congress from Kasauli in Himachal Assembly Elections

By: Jagmeet Y. Ghuman

KUMARHATTI: Dr. Vijay Saizal the local boy has managed to derail the Congress applecart from Kasauli constituency by defeating the veteran Congress leader Mr. Raghu Raj. In fact Dr. Saizal victory showed the youth strength of BJP in Kasauli that assured the victory of its candidate. Despite being alien to poll arena , Dr. Saizal won convincingly by defeating Mr. Raghu Raj with the margin of 6374 votes.

Dr. Saizal got 21,396 votes out of the total 39,456 votes polled. Mr. Raghu Raj did manage to get 15,022 votes as against the 17,886 polled in last poll in 2003. Last time the BJP candidate, Mr. Virender Kashyap had secured 14,127 votes.

Dr. Saizal victory was a big setback to Congress who was quite sure of its victory from seat. Due to his tall clout, Mr. Raghu Raj had won five elections from Kasauli between 1982 to 2003 except in 1990 when BJP candidate, Mr. Satpal Kamboj won from seat.

Vinod Kumar who had got 4,500 votes on Himachal Vikas Party ticket last time has joined BJP now. Moreover Mr. Chaman Lal Gachli who won from Kasauli in 1977 as independent candidate has also joined BJP.

It was dreams come true for BJP, whose local leaders were at loggerhead due to severe groupism in party before the nomination of party candidate for seat. A major crisis was surfaced in party over ticket allocation after 17 nominations were received for seat. However all seemed well in party suddenly after party leadership had given importance to youth power by giving ticket to Dr. Saizal.

The Congress who had launched its poll canvassing quite before than BJP could not counter the anti incumbency factor and as well as lethargic attitude of Mr. Raghu Raj towards development of certain area in constituency.