Shimla, Mar 16 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh state is set for a direct contest between the BJP, riding high on the Ram Mandir plank, and the Congress, which is struggling to get its house in order.
The Congress in the state plunged into a crisis in February, just 14 months after its victory in the Assembly elections, when six of its MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls for the state’s lone seat.
Its central leadership rushed into damage-control mode as the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government veered close to losing its majority in the assembly.
Lok Sabha polls in the state will be held on June 1 in the seventh phase of voting, as announced Saturday.
The state’s ruling Congress is now targeting the previous BJP regime for leading Himachal Pradesh into a “debt trap”.
And it will showcase its own government’s handling of the monsoon disaster – without the “special package” it wanted from the BJP-run Centre. The state government says it dug into its own coffers and shelled out Rs 4,500 crore for relief and rehabilitation of its people.
The BJP won all four Lok Sabha seats in the hill state last time.
However, it lost the Mandi parliamentary seat in the 2021 by-election. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma.
Congress candidate Pratibha Singh, the party’s state unit chief, won the seat, riding a sympathy wave after the death of her husband and former chief minister Virbhadra Singh.
In the 2022 state elections, the Congress won 40 seats in the 68-member assembly.
The crisis triggered last month by rebel MLAs appears to have been papered over by the Congress. But the party is still not sure about the stability of its government in the state. And the BJP claims that some more Congress MLAs are in touch with them.
Following the disqualification of the rebel legislators, the effective strength of the House has reduced from 68 to 62. The number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34. The BJP has 25 MLAs and the remaining three are Independents, who sided with the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Previously, the Congress won all Lok Sabha seats in Himachal in elections held in 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1980, 1984 and 1996.
The party won three seats in 2004, two in 1991 and one each in 1989 and 2009, before losing all seats in 1977, 1999, 2014 and 2019.
The Janata Party and the BJP-Himachal Vikas Congress swept the polls in 1977 and 1999 respectively, while the BJP made a clean sweep in 2014 and 2019.
Before the election announcement, the BJP began its ‘Reach the Villages’ campaign, slamming the state government over the still “unfulfilled” poll promises.
But the Congress has been trying to regain lost momentum. Just days back, Sukhu announced the implementation of one of the poll promises – a Rs 1,500 monthly stipend for eligible women in the 18-60 age group. The government says this will benefit five lakh women. PTI BPL IJT IJT
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