After witnessing a fierce electoral war in Himachal Pradesh in which two powerful political families are involved — one from the BJP and the other from Congress, forty-eight lakh voters would decide the fate of 38 candidates in four parliamentary seats in the Himalayan State on Wednesday.
No prizes for guessing that it is senior BJP leader, two-time Chief Minister and now leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal who is pitched in an electoral battle with six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in a battle of wits in which victory or defeat would have wide spread political ramification for both the leaders. Both Dhumal and Singh, spearheading their parties, campaigned extensively and addressed over 300 meetings each in almost every nook and corner of the state.
Unlike the culture at the national level in BJP, Himachal Pradesh is perhaps the only State where father Dhumal and son Anurag Thakur are both important leaders of the saffron party. BJP leaders in the state insist that Thakur, two-time MP from Hamirpur and President the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, is a leader on his own right and has not “benefited” from the stature of his father, a claim which the Congress rejects outrightly.
Then, there is the royal family of Virbhadra Singh—typically dynastic and represents the classic Congress culture where son succeeds the father and occasionally the wife of the leader too pitches in. Pratibha Singh or the Rani Sahiba, wife of the chief minister is the Congress candidate from Mandi while his son Vikramaditya Singh, called Tikka Sahib, is the star campaigner of the party. Vikramaditya, 23, President of Himachal Youth Congress, has been launched big time in this election. He could have contested the poll from Mandi had he been 25 years of age. BJP leaders in the state slam the dynastic politics of the Congress saying his mother is keeping the seat warm for him.
Virbhadra Singh, more popular as Raja Sahib, embroiled in several controversies and charges of corruption, launched what the BJP called “vendetta politics” soon after coming to power for the sixth time in December 2012. Both Dhumal and Thakur have been brought under the lens of the state government controlled Vigilance Bureau for alleged irregularities in the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. Thakur has build a world class cricket stadium in Dharamsala in the backdrop of the mighty Dhauladhar range and Virbhadra Singh wants to discredit them by all means available to him.
“This election is a litmus test for both Dhumal and Singh. If BJP wins 3-1, the days of Virbhadra could be numbered. Dhumal would emerge victorious in the people’s court and vendetta politics would be defeated. But If Congress wins 3-1, Virbhadra would have the last laugh and Dhumal would be defensive besides facing more vendetta cases,” said a political analyst in Shimla.