Chandigarh: A day after Congress announced the name of Ashray Sharma, son of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Himachal Pradesh power minister Anil Sharma, as its Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi, clamour within the BJP for Sharma Sr.’s ouster has grown considerably.
Anil Sharma, who was a cabinet minister in the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government in the state from 2012 to 2017, had joined the BJP along with son Ashray and father Sukh Ram weeks before the last assembly polls in the state. Sukh Ram is a veteran politician and former union minister.
For this year’s Lok Sabha elections, Sukh Ram was pushing for his grandson’s candidature from the BJP but with the party deciding to field sitting MP Ramswaroop Sharma, the veteran leader along with Ashray left the BJP to go back to the Congress last week.
However, the announcement of Ashray’s candidature from Mandi has brought the heat on Anil, with senior BJP leaders demanding that action be taken against him.
A decision about Anil is likely to be taken by Sunday morning, said sources in the Himachal unit of the BJP.
While Anil had reportedly offered to resign following his family’s move to shift to Congress, he had said it was for the BJP to decide if it wanted to act against him. CM Jai Ram Thakur had also said that Anil will be thrown out of the party if he campaigns for his son.
On Saturday, Anil told news agency PTI that he will not campaign against his son. Anil is the BJP MLA from Mandi assembly segment, which falls under the Mandi parliamentary constituency, along with 16 other assembly segments.
Also read: For grandson, Sukh Ram switches loyalty yet again, but latest move likely to dent his image
The Mandi fight
After the dubious move to Congress, Ashray is now pitted in a straight fight with BJP’s Ramswaroop Sharma.
While this is Ashray’s first electoral battle, Ramswaroop is an old BJP war horse, said to be the “sudama” of the party and known for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ramswaroop had defeated former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of almost 40,000 votes.
Ashray’s campaign on the other hand is expected to be star studded. He is married to cricketer Gautam Gambhir’s cousin Radhika, a stylist and fashion blogger herself. Ashray’s actor brother Aayush is married to superstar Salman Khan’s sister Arpita Khan. Gambhir recently joined the BJP.
Ashray Sharma manages the family’s hotel business in Mandi.
In and out
A Brahmin mass leader whose family wields considerable influence in Mandi, shifting loyalties and parties is not new to Sukh Ram, who is known to be the “aaya ram gayaram” kind of a politician.
Sukh Ram held the Mandi assembly seat in four elections, from 1967 till 1984, when he shifted to the Lok Sabha from the Mandi parliamentary constituency.
The senior leader lost the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in 1989 only to win it back in 1991, after which he was chosen to be the telecom minister. Despite the telecom scam of 1995, Sukh Ram managed to make it to Parliament again in 1996 from the same seat.
After he was expelled from the Congress in 1997, he formed the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) which won 5 seats in the 1998 assembly polls. Sukh Ram then helped the BJP to come to power under Prem Kumar Dhumal. Anil was elected into Rajya Sabha the same year.
In 2004, Sukh Ram and Anil went back to the Congress and Anil went on to win the Mandi assembly seat consecutively in 2007 and 2012.
Also read: Sukh Ram, who once helped Dhumal form government, is no stranger to BJP
Relationship with Virbhadra Singh
Hs grandson’s electoral debut has forced Sukh Ram to knock on the doors of his bête noire within the Congress, six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh.
On Friday, Sukh Ram reportedly met Singh at his residence in Delhi to garner support for Ashray in the coming elections. The two doyens of Himachal Congress who have never seen eye to eye even hugged each other.
However, this isn’t the first time that the two have “temporarily” patched up. Ahead of the 2004 general elections too, Virbhadra and Sukh Ram came together when the former’s wife was the candidate from Mandi.