Rebels have queered the pitch for both the BJP and the Congress in Himachal Pradesh that goes to polls on November 12.
Out to buck the trend of the hill State of not electing a party for a second consecutive term, the BJP finds that its move to give tickets to candidates, backed by surveys, has resulted in 20 party leaders turning rebels and filing their nominations as independents.
The BJP could, however, draw some comfort from the fact that its main rival, Congress, is also not without the share of rebels with as many as 12 filing nominations to contest against the official candidates.
The poll campaign has peaked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday holding two back to back rallies even as BJP president JP Nadda and union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Anurag Thakur among others have been touring the State for the last few months addressing public rallies covering the nerve centre of the 68 strong Assembly seats in the state.
From the Congress its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has been leading from the front with his brother and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi busy with his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra.’ Priyanka has concentrated on the Kangra district which returns 15 of the total 68 Assembly MLAs to the Himachal assembly.
The Congress on Saturday released its manifesto and promised 10 guarantees to the state's people including employment to 5 lakh youth, 300 units of free electricity and monthly compensation of `1500 to women besides restoring the old pension scheme and conceding demands of apple growers. The last two promises have made the BJP leaders more anxious with just a week left for the polls.
Congress -led Rajasthan, AAP-ruled Punjab and JMM-Congress-RJD coalition in Jharkhand have already announced their decision to implement the old pension scheme. A large number of pensioners in Himachal Pradesh want the old pension scheme to be re-implemented in the state.
The BJP has sought to counter the Congress’s doles by offering 3 free LPG cylinders, bicycles to 6 to class 12 girls, scooty to girls in higher education and GST to be limited to 12 per cent for apple growers. This apart, the saffron manifesto promised implementation of Uniform Civil Code in the state.
The BJP rebels are protesting ticket allocation “based on surveys” and threatening to spoil the victory margins of party nominees including in Bilaspur, the home district of Nadda.
The BJP has denied tickets to 11 sitting MLAs. Additionally, ticket allotment to two Congress turncoats has resulted in the BJP adding two more to the list of rebels. Congress defectors Pawan Kajal and Lakhwinder Rana will contest on BJP ticket from Kangra and Nalagarh seats respectively.
Though BJP has managed to placate some of the MLAs denied tickets, rebels are in the fray in Mandi, Bilaspur, Kangra, Dharamsala, Jhanduta, Chamba, Dehra, Kullu, Hamirpur, Nalagarh, Fatehpur, Kinnaur, Anni, Sundernagar, Nachan and Indora.
The BJP earlier this week expelled five leaders for anti-party activities, including four former MLAs and a party vice president. All five are contesting as Independents from their constituencies.
Apart from the six expelled leaders, some prominent BJP rebels who are fighting the polls despite party pressure include former secretary and media in-charge Praveen Sharma in Mandi and Kulbhash Chand Chaudhary in Kangra. Nadda has been making vigorous efforts to placate the rebels and managed to persuade three leaders to withdraw from the race.
In Chief Minister Jairam Thakur’s home district of Mandi too rebel leaders like Gian Chand, former minister Roop Singh’s son Abhishek Thakur and Praveen Sharma are posing problems for the BJP.
The advantage of the BJP is that it has already projected Jairam Thakur as its CM for a second term while it has not been the case with the Congress and the AAP.
The anti-incumbency, however, is a worrying factor in a close contest with expected thin margin of victories.
The Congress poll campaign has relatively started late and has still remained low key like in Gujarat, another poll-bound state.
The BJP had won 44 seats in the 2017 elections, restricting the Congress Party to 22 seats. At present, the Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly has 45 BJP MLAs, while Congress has 22 and CPI(M) has one MLA.