Shimla : Now its final. State Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur will be the congress nominee in front of BJP legendary Prem Kumar Dhumal. The high command of both the parties officially declared their candidate for Hamirpur by-election. The Hamirpur seat had fallen vacant following the expulsion of former BJP MP Suresh Chandel in the wake of the cash for query scam. The nomination for this election will be filed upto 13th of May and election to be scheduled on 2nd of June.
Meanwhile, Hamirpur Lok Sabha Election is all Dhumal and Virbhadra game. At present both Congress and BJP are preparing for mass campaign, but its clear that two top most leaders of these parties are the real warriors in this battlefield of Hamirpur. But if popularity is taken into account, then Mr. Prem Kumar Dhumal, a native, is far ahead than any other saffron monarch. Not only he is former Chief minister, but also a mass leader of his calculated moves in active politics. Presently he is the mightiest BJP star. By nominating Dhumal, the BJP played his trump card.
On the other hand, Congress is with his old warhorse. Party has lost in Hamirpur all the last three battles. Keeping in view the Suresh Chandel scandal, Congress is all set to change the story this time. But pity is that the Congress has no strong enough star to block Dhumal Tsunami on local ground. Moreover Forest Minister Ram Lal said that price rise is no more issue and on the development baseline, Cong surely will win Hamirpur. Since last three Loksabha Election, Hamirpur has been the Eden Garden of BJP, as it got victory all the time. In 1999 Suresh Chandel of BJP got success over Ram Lal Thakur by 129247 votes, but story was no so sweet in 2004. This time Thakur gave neck to neck fight and Chandel got a narrow escape by 1677 votes. It means that Hamirpur is going to offer some real tough time for both the parties, exactly before the assembly poll, proposed in Jan. 2008
A sensible step by BJP. Everyone in the state knows district Kangra will play deciding factor in coming assembly elections. By fielding the man who gave everything to his district, Hamirpur, BJP is shooting two stars with one shot.
Clearly it will take the infighting between BJP away as Kangra favorite Shanta Kumar will be CM candidate in assembly elections and there wont be any way to defeat him. As Kangra district has largest number of MLAs plus a lot of resentment in the district not being able to bring CM in long time. It clears the ground for Shanta Kumar and would make even Congress MLAs from Kangra happy as everyone wants to see CM from Kangra area. BJP is already working hard to malign Bali’s name so that he does not become next CM candidate so Congress does not have even a single strong candidate from the district. Major Vijay Singh Mankotia keeps turning here and there and does not show as a capable strong leader plus he was never in strong limelight in last few years.
On the other hand Dhumal’s victory, which is already written on the wall would also ensure moral boost to party cadres and would chalk out the way for CLEAR BJP WIN in assembly elections.
Where is congress high command sleeping, they should have taken one of Virbhadra or Stokes to center a long time ago.
But alas poor Ram Lal Thakur is going to be scapegoat of congress infighting.
Good luck to both candidates!
Himachal needs a strong voice in central level. I dont know what is it with Himachal that they stay behind to send a stronger candidate to national politics. Look at dominating states, they all have very strong MPs in parliament and they always fight for their state’s issues.
Its time that Himachalis realise this and send a very strong and vocal person to federal level. If they need industry share or better delas from central government they need to send a fighter. With Rs 18,000 crore debt and rising, I dont think HP has potential to repay it even wih Hydro power.
Time is to get more and more Industry and that would happen only when there is a strong leader representing state all across the globe.
Dhumal is one very strong leader with proven skills with excellent links with central leadership and I think its time he puts his weight!
Thakur is also good leader and widely traveled and better that all the MPs of the state right now.
Good for state to have good leaders in the race!
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070512/himachal.htm#8
In this new item, A comment by CM Mr. Singh on himachali NRI’s is not in good taste?
“BJP leader also took strong exception to Chief Minister’s remarks of calling them NRI Himachalis”
How do you interpret this statement?
God, grant us the Serenity to accept the things we cannot change; the Courage to change the things we can; and the Wisdom to know the difference.
Life is like a blanket: too short. You pull it up and your toes rebel, you yank it down and shiver meander over your shoulder, but cheerful folks manage to draw their knees up and pass a very comfortable night.
Nominating PKD for Lok Sabha show how desperate is BJP to win this seat- PKD is a first ranking leader of BJP and expected to be Chief Minister of HP (if BJP wins next elections) and putting such a high ranking leader for a mere 2 year term in Lok Sabha shows the infighting of BJP.
If one analyses the last Lok Sabha elections results, one shall find that it was only Bamsa (?) which gave lead to Suresh Chandel to win narrowly, in all the rest of Assembly Constituency (if I remember it correctly) congress was in lead. So it is going to be interesting – a section of BJP wants PKD to loose and thus loose the right to ask for next CM’s post in HP.
After the hallat through which BJP going in UP, it shall be interesting to see how Himachalis respond to this disperate attempt of BJP.
A very good point. Although situation in UP is different, Mayawati played excellent card of caste based politics. However if you look at overall situation in HP, its altogether different.
But point is again simple, its not possible to defeat PKD in his home district. You can visit the district any time, people swear by his name. RLT(Ram Lal Thakur) is also good man and has done excellent work for HP and in his constituency, but then we are talking about whole district here.
However if we come to point why BJP played the card of PKD then its all simple, its regional politics in HP. Same way Mayawati played caste based card and won with complete majority. MLAs from Kangra has a strong resentment about not having a CM of their own even after giving 16 legislatures to the state. Last time when PKD was CM, even his own party MLAs from kangra resented not having fair share for the district. At the end of his term, most of them use to be at Shanta camp. Even now congress activist from lower belt are trying hard to get a CM from there. And they also dont care whether its Shanta or some one else.
Both parties has infighting and every one knows that and there is no need to elaborate on it. But BJP surely seems winner in getting rid of infighting by fielding PKD. As it will reduce infighting and also boost morale of ground worker. Take the case of former CM, Ram Lal Thakur and VB Singh, congress took one of them to central whenever infighting was high on rise. I think its time party leadership play a strong role rather than keep watching the ego tussels of its leaders.