Will BJP script history in Himachal?

Chandigarh: November 12 polls in Himachal Pradesh are interesting in so many ways.

It is the first election since the 80s when political heavyweights are not in the picture.

Six times chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who remained the tallest leader of the Congress party for over 50 years, died last year due to illness.

His wife and president of Himachal Congress, Pratibha Singh, is now trying to steer the party in the upcoming polls.

On the other hand, Virbhadra’s long-time opponent in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a two-time chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, is his way out of state politics.

The saffron party emphatically won the 2017 assembly election under Dhumal’s leadership.

Yet, he could not become chief minister and was replaced with last-minute entrant Jai Ram Thakur after he lost his own constituency.

His supporters wanted Dhumal to play a vital role in upcoming polls. But Thakur emerged as the undisputed choice of Delhi leadership to lead the party from the front in coming elections.

An election that decides the generation shift in Himachal politics has another unique feature.

State’s bi-polar politics, where no party repeated the government since the 1990 election, has a third player - Aam Aadmi Party - in contention.

This may impact the victory margins in each of 68 assembly constituencies of the state assembly.

Yet, BJP is confident to repeat the government by bucking the 32 years old trend.

BJP thinks a couple of factors may go in its favour. First, the opposition is weak.

Thakur has said in almost all his recent media interviews that a deeply-divided Congress and an inexperienced AAP can’t serve the people of Himachal.

It also made several senior Congress and AAP leaders - notably five times Congress MLA Ram Lal Thakur, acting state Congress president Harsh Mahajan and AAP state convener Anoop Kesari- join the saffron party to convince voters that BJP is in a formidable position.

Apart from this, BJP is banking heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image and policies.

BJP National chief J P Nadda, who belongs to Himachal, is also active in the state politics for the past six months.

Last but not the least, Thakur believed he had done everything which was doable during the last five years of his government and voters are satisfied with his government’s governance.

On the contrary, Congress has made misgovernance, unemployment and inflation the BJP’s rule its major poll plank.

Banking on Virbhadra’s legacy, Pratibha Singh has maintained that BJP under Jai Ram Thakur miserably failed on all fronts.

She also claimed every section including government employees and apple growers had troubles.

Some senior congress leaders including Mukesh Agnihotri also said all was not well inside BJP as well, especially on the question of Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur - who are not actively canvassing for the saffron party. They believed this would directly help Congress.

Apart from this, Congress’s 10-point agenda had attractive freebies like 300 units of free electricity to every household, free mobile clinics, and four English-medium schools in each constituency.

Senior congress leaders believed its agenda would work as an antidote to Modi’s appeal and also neutralise the impact of AAP, which otherwise made similar announcements.

AAP started off well here but it could not build up a cohesive unit due to a number of factors including constant changes at the top.

Yet, the party thinks it has a chance to do well since it has Punjab model as a showcase of performance, even as there are several cracks in its Punjab working.

Amid these claims, all eyes will be on how the state’s 55 Lakh voters vote in the coming elections.

It is a battle for prestige for BJP while Congress, which is facing its worst-ever existential crisis since its formation over a century ago, is looking for a ray of hope.

For AAP, it is an election to further expand its national footprint after the Punjab victory.

It is interesting to see which way the state, which is known for its predictable outcome, swings when ballot boxes open on December 8.