In less than a week, after Maheshwar Singh led rebel outfit Himachal lokhit Party (HlP) decided not to merge with BJP and announced that it would stay out of the general elections, its herd is gradually falling apart.
In past one week, three top leaders have left the party and had joined their hands with BJP. Just after the party decided that it would not contest the elections, HlP vice-president and former legislator Dullo Ram left the party and joined hands with BJP and announced his support to BJP veteran Shanta Kumar. On Saturday, another vice-president and former legislator KD Dharmani of Ghumarwin Assembly constituency got back into party fold in the presence of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and party president Satpal Singh Satti.
Also, the party State secretary Narendra Parmar from Chintpurni of Una district is back in BJP and talks are rife that HlP vice-president Babu Ram Mandyal is also in contact with BJP leaders. Sensing the mounting trouble with top leaders deserting the party, HlP chief Maheshwar Singh is soon to chair a high level meeting of office bearers. BJP top leadership at Centre had recently held talks with Maheshwar Singh asking him to merge his party and contest the elections from Mandi parliamentary seat.
However, HlP core group decided not to merge the party and not to contest the lok Sabha elections. According to sources, this led to bickering in the party as many leaders wanted to contest the polls or were in favour of merger of their party with BJP. “Some leaders are unhappy with the functioning of HlP chief Maheshwar Singh and his closeness with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, as party had earlier contested the elections by maintaining equal distance with Congress and BJP,” said a senior leader of HlP.
HlP on Saturday announced that party will support Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the State. AAP has announced BJP rebel Rajan Sushant as their candidate from Kangra constituency. When contacted, Maheshwar Singh said that he was not afraid of leaders from his party joining BJP. “In election time, this is a normal tendency seen in some over ambitious leaders,” said Singh. Particularly stating about former MlA Dullo Ram, who recently joined BJP, he said Dullo Ram was more against Shanta Kumar than the BJP.
“Now, only Dullo Ram can explain in a much better way, the change in his mindset,” said Singh adding that several leaders of BJP are happy, thinking that HlP is finished, let them be happy. He said HlP is non-Congress, non-BJP party and will support candidates of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). “We will render our unconditional support to AAP candidates to stop the division of anti-Congress and anti-BJP votes,” he added.
When asked about his pro-Congress stance, Singh said he was never pro-Congress but he had praised some good work done by State Government and had also criticised the Government on several issues, especially in Vidhan Sabha. “I am not a ‘B’ team of Congress party as alleged by some BJP leaders,” added Singh.