Shimla: The BJP’s decision to field a candidate for Himachal Pradesh’s lone Rajya Sabha seat despite not having the requisite number of MLAs has apparently become a matter of concern for the state’s ruling Congress, given the party’s record of winning elections through defections from rival camps.
The Congress has 40 MLAs in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha and the BJP has 25. There are three independent MLAs, of whom two are BJP rebels.
The BJP Thursday announced the candidature of Harsh Mahajan, who hails from Himachal and was in the Congress until he switched loyalties in 2022. A day earlier, the Congress high command had nominated Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who hails from Rajasthan, for the polls, while there were several Himachal leaders wanting a ticket.
Former Union minister Anand Sharma and former state ministers Kaul Singh Thakur and Asha Kumari were among the aspirants for the Rajya Sabha seat that will fall vacant after the end of BJP president J.P. Nadda’s tenure in April.
The contest has thus become a local-versus-outsider one.
Speaking to ThePrint, Mahajan said: “Who is in the majority is not an issue when there is an election. MLAs will vote with their conscience. There are several MLAs who are feeling suffocated within the Congress. As far as victory is concerned, the BJP contests every election to win.”
A Congress MLA said that some legislators were unhappy with CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and his government.
“Some MLAs are unhappy and not attending party or government meetings. Harsh Mahajan is an old Congressman and knows everything about everyone. He was the ‘Hanuman’ of (former Congress CM) Virbhadra Singh. For the Congress, convincing disgruntled MLAs (to vote for its nominee), that, too, when Harsh Mahajan is in the contest, is a task,” he said.
Mahajan has been a three-time MLA (1993, 1998, 2003) and former minister. He joined the BJP ahead of the 2022 state elections when he was one of the three working presidents of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee.
Sukhu told the media that the BJP had fielded a candidate to contest the election just for the sake of contesting.
“If the BJP wants to contest, they can. But the result will be before us soon as we have a clear majority and we will win,” he said in Shimla Thursday.
Speaking to the media, Singhvi, too, said that everyone has the right to contest elections in a democracy. “The Congress has a majority in Himachal Pradesh,” he added.
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Himachali vs outsider
Jairam Thakur, the leader of the opposition in the assembly, said it would have been better if the Congress had given someone from Himachal a chance.
“Fielding any candidate is the internal matter of any political party. But it would have been better if someone from Himachal was given a chance,” he told the media.
A senior Congress leader, a former minister, told ThePrint: “We were expecting Sonia ji (Sonia Gandhi) or Priyanka ji (Priyanka Gandhi) but the high command nominated another leader. It would have been better if a senior Congressman from Himachal was given the ticket.”
The Congress MLA mentioned earlier said that, had the party fielded a local leader, it would have worked as a binding force for the MLAs.
The Himachal Congress is split into two factions — one is seen as aligned with Sukhu, while the other is seen as loyal to the Virbhadra Singh family.
Himachal Congress president Pratibha Singh, Virbhadra’s wife, has time and again questioned the CM for allegedly not giving adequate representation to party workers. If workers are not given adequate representation in the government, she said, they will be demoralised.
“If the workers are demoralised and sit at home, how will the party contest the Lok Sabha elections?” she told reporters last month.
According to Singh, some disgruntled leaders had also spoken to her and she had raised their issues with the CM.
Dharamshala MLA and former minister Sudhir Sharma as well as Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana have expressed their displeasure with the Sukhu government on social media, especially after they failed to make it to the state cabinet.
The biennial elections to fill 56 seats of the Rajya Sabha will be held on 27 February.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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