As Himachal Pradesh goes to polls on Thursday to elect its Government for the next five years, the battle is clearly between change offered by the BJP and status quo offered by ruling Congress. Not surprisingly, change is the dominant political theme this November in the hill State where both the two main parties have shared power one after the other for the last over three decades.
Even as anti-incumbency against ruling Congress is visible on the ground, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has not lost his popularity despite being repeatedly attacked for corruption and promotion of dynastic politics. In the upper hills, there is still reverence for royalty to some extent, particularly in the elderly men and women and also because Singh has been one of the stalwarts of the state, being a six time chief minister and being in politics since making his parliamentary debut in 1962.
Singh says the party is fighting the polls on the government’s all round achievements in all fields be it education, health, providing water and road network and other indices of development. Singh readily cites statistics to bolster his claims and how the state has developed in successive Congress regimes. He tells his audience in his meetings how the BJP government is targeting him on small matters of income tax with multiple agencies hounding him, how vindictive the Centre is and how all his bank accounts have been sealed. “Is this the way of governanceIJ” he asks.
His rival, Prem Kumar Dhumal enjoys similar popularity in the lower hills. Being a two-time chief minister having mass connect and popular support, the announcement of his name as the chief ministerial face of the party, triggered enthusiasm amongst the BJP cadres and even the fence sitters. The announcement by party chief Amit Shah, BJP cadres say, clinched the deal for the lotus as it was a last minute “master stroke”. “Had the BJP gone without a name, it would have confused the cadres and supporters,” said a party veteran in Shimla.
“There is a wave of change blowing in the entire state. Gone are the days of kings and kingdoms. We are committed for a golden future of the state and have released a vision document for this. There will be no corruption, no mafia raj and effective administration for the betterment of all Himachalis,” said Dhumal. He cited the achievements of the central government and pointed out how important it was to have the same party government for faster and rapid development throughout his whirlwind campaign.
For the BJP, it was the campaign strategy of carpet bombing the state with its top leaders which seemed to have gone well, particularly the floating voters who make a decision at the last moment. “Just see how much attention BJP is giving to the State. They will give similar attention after coming to power,” said Anil Bhardwaj, a young school teacher and a voter in Nadaun, near Hamirpur.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed seven rallies in every part of the state, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was completely absent from campaigning apparently due to ill health. Party Vice President and heir apparent Rahul Gandhi of course, addressed three rallies to make for the deficit but clearly involvement of top leadership of Congress from the campaign was missing. Congress sources in Rajiv Bhawan in Shimla admitted of “meager resources” and lack of adequate interest from High Command.
Interestingly, in the 2012 assembly polls, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not addressed any political rally. This shows how important the elections are for BJP. Party leaders point out that for Modi and BJP leadership, winning back the hill state was a vital for the campaign of “Congress Mukt Bharat”. Several Union Ministers and chief ministers of BJP ruled states spread in every nook and corner to spread the message of the party across while most of the senior Congress leaders only addressed press conferences in Shimla.
From the Congress, 83-year old Virbhadra Singh was the star campaigner and fought the polls valiantly. Campaigning for up to 16 hours a day by helicopter and road, Raja sahib as he is known in the state, left no stone unturned. He, however, did not work and campaign seriously for a few candidates, chosen by the high command and this posed serious question marks on the unity of party rank and file.
Though the results will be announced only on December 18, Himachal polls will be known for high decibel campaign of the BJP and muted response of the Congress and voter indifference to making issues like demonetisation and GST as poll campaign. Anti-incumbency will be single biggest deciding factor in the polls.