BJP has found selecting a suitable candidate from Mandi to take on sitting MP Pratibha Singh an uphill task.
The Central leadership of the party will take the final decision on its candidate for Mandi which has been kept pending so far in the wake of last minute efforts to persuade Maheshwar Singh, founder of Himachal lokhit Party (HlP), to come back to BJP.
When contacted former Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, and former Union Minister, Shanta Kumar said that efforts were being made to assuage the hurt feelings of Maheshwar Singh, who had nursed the BJP in the State for over five decades.The party cadre in Mandi and Kulu is also pressing the BJP leadership to bring back the former stalwart to the BJP. He had been elected to Parliament twice in the past on BJP ticket.
In the present political scenario, BJP leadership is of the firm conviction that Maheshwar Singh would be the strongest candidate to defeat Pratibha Singh, sitting MP and wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh if he comes back to BJP in the light of the Modi wave sweeping across the country.
However, Maheshwar Singh is still reluctant. It will not be surprising if the former BJP leader may agree to rejoin the BJP by conceding to the requests of central and state leadership of the BJP in the light of the fact that many BJP men who had gone to the Himachal lokhit Party had already rejoined the BJP.
Dhumal criticises hegemony of former royals
Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Tuesday said the Mandi parliamentary constituency of the backward hill State had remained the hegemony of the former rulers and the vested interests whose contribution to the development and welfare of the State had been insignificant. “This lok Sabha seat was usurped by former royal families who did virtually nothing for the backward people of the state,” he said.
In 1952 general elections, Congress gave ticket from Mandi to Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur of Patiala royal family who became the MP. During the subsequent term (1957) Congress preferred the former ruler of Mandi State, Raja Joginder Sen, who got elected as MP.The Raja of Suket (Sundernagar) was twice given Congress ticket in 1962 and 1967 and he got elected.
In 1971 Congress gave ticket to Virbhadra Singh of royal family of Rampur in 1971 who won the polls for the first time. However, he had to bear the brunt of emergency and was defeated by Ganga Singh of the then Janata Party. In 1980, Virbhadra Singh won again and was made a minister in the Union Cabinet.
“It is an irony that from amongst the common people, Pandit Sukh Ram and Ganga Singh were the only two exceptions who were elected MPs from Mandi Parliamentary constituency since independence. It has been taken over by the royal families,” he said.