New Delhi: There’s a rebellion brewing inside the Himachal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. With elections now less than a month away, ticket distribution in Himachal Pradesh — a state where the difference between victory and loss is often a few votes — has caused disgruntlement within the BJP, ThePrint has learnt.
In its list announced on 20 October, the ruling BJP has changed the assembly seats of two senior ministers, including Suresh Bhardwaj — the second most powerful minister in the state’s Jai Ram Thakur cabinet after the chief minister himself — sources in the BJP said.
The party has also dropped 11 sitting Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from its list of candidates for the 12 November election, the sources said.
Bhardwaj, a four-time MLA from Shimla Urban, has been replaced by Sanjay Sood, a tea stall owner from Shimla — a development that has caused much rancour in his camp. Instead, Bhardwaj will contest the election from Kasumpti.
“I’m not even a voter in Kasumpti,” Bhardwaj told party workers after the seat change. “Now whether I win or lose will be decided by BJP workers but they’re unhappy.”
Chief Minister Thakur’s home district of Mandi and the neighboring Kangra district are facing the chief of this rebellion. Sources in the BJP say that the party’s facing rebellion in 5 of Kangra’s 10 assembly seats and 5-6 of Mandi’s 10 seats.
Consequently, several MLAs are now filing nominations to fight the election as independent candidates, BJP sources said — a development that could cost the party in the elections.
One of the major reasons for the growing resentment is the party’s decision to give tickets to Congress turncoats who joined recently, BJP sources said. Another is that tickets were given without consulting BJP’s lower cadre, the sources said.
Former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Kripal Parmar told ThePrint that the reason for the resentment was that the party had given tickets to people with deep pockets.
Parmar, who resigned as Himachal BJP’s vice-president in November last year after he was denied a ticket to contest assembly bypolls from Fatehpur, Kangra, has announced he will contest the election alone after being denied a ticket yet again.
“[Forest minister] Rakesh Pathania has corruption charges [against him] but he was given a ticket in my area [Fatehpur]. In Nurpur, they’ve given a ticket to another financer.”
By “financer”, Parmar means people with money.
Pathania is the second minister whose assembly seat has been changed.
Elections for the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly will be held on 12 November. Votes will be counted on 8 December.
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Significant ommissions
Among the most significant omissions from this assembly election’s list was former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
Dhumal, whose son Anurag Thakur is a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, was keen to fight the election from Surajpur, sources said.
Although he’s yet to react, his supporters are disappointed, said sources.
Also among those denied a ticket is Anurag’s father-in-law Gulab Singh Thakur.
Both Dhumal and Gulab Singh lost the 2017 assembly elections.
The BJP high command, meanwhile, has asked Anurag to be present when BJP’s Surajpur candidate, Capt Ranjeet, files his nomination.
Among the disgruntled rebels who have filed their nominations as independent candidates are Praveen Sharma, a BJP leader from Mandi Sadar who was the party’s media in-charge, Nalagarh MLA K.L.Thakur, and former Hamirpur Zila Parishad vice-president Naresh Darji.
Instead of K.L. Thakur, the BJP has fielded Congress rebel L.S. Rana from Nalagarh.
The most striking rebellion, however, came from Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh Thakur’s family. When his son Rajat Thakur was named the BJP’s candidate from Dharampur in Solan district in place of his father, his daughter Vandana Guleria, the general secretary of BJP women’s wing, the Mahila Morcha, quit her post and announced she was contesting the election as an independent candidate.
Soon after she quit, Guleria said in a Facebook post: ““Delhi se ticket mil sakta hai par vote nahin…. Parivarvad mein har bar betiyon ki hi bali kyun li jati hai (a candidate can get a ticket from Delhi but can’t get votes from there. Why’s a daughter sacrificed each time in family politics).”
Similarly, sitting BJP MLAs from Karsog and Darang, Hiral Lal, and Jawahar Thakur have announced they will contest the election as independents. After being denied a ticket, sitting Sarkaghat MLA Col Inder Singh has announced his support for BJP rebel Chander Mohan, who has announced he would fight from the seat as an independent candidate.
Also joining the list is Abhishek Thakur, son of former BJP minister and six-time MLA Roop Singh Thakur. Friday, he held a huge procession after filing his nomination as an independent from Sundernagar.
Rebellion in Kangra and Chamba
After Rakesh Pathania was announced as the party candidate from Fatehpur instead of Nurpur, former BJP MP Parmar, quoted earlier, announced he would run against him as an independent.
Speaking to ThePrint, Parmar said that the “fight now is between a karyakarta (worker) and a financer,”.
“I will not withdraw [my nomination],” he said. “I’ve given everything to this party but they’ve denied me a ticket despite making promises.”
There are others like him. In Kangra, the BJP is facing rebellion in one-third of the region’s 15 assembly seats.
After the BJP fielded Rita Dhiman from Indora — a reserved seat — former MLA Manohar Dhiman decided he would fight her as an independent.
Likewise, Jawali MLA Arjun Singh has also decided to contest the elections on his own.
In Dharamsala, when sitting MLA Vishal Nehria — a leader who faced allegations last year of having tortured his wife — was dropped, his supporters threatened to resign en masse.
In Chamba, the threat of a rebellion forced the BJP to change its candidate. After the BJP announced Indira Kapoor as its candidate, sitting MLA Pawan Nayyar called a meeting of his supporters in protest.
Sensing trouble, the BJP quickly back-pedalled, announcing Nayyar’s wife Neelam as their new candidate.
Party sources, however, told ThePrint that the BJP decided to change its candidate because of the corruption allegations against Kapoor.
In August 2021, Kapoor, a former member of the Chamba Zila Parishad, and several other people were sentenced to three years of imprisonment for embezzling grants given for development projects.
That sentence was stayed by the Himachal High Court on 21 October.
‘Tickets to Congress hoppers’
Not only were tickets being given to Congress turncoats, said BJP sources, but also the party failed to keep its promises.
For instance, Manohar Dhiman was promised during the assembly elections of 2017 that he would be given a ticket in the next elections. But that never happened. One BJP functionary who didn’t want to be identified told ThePrint that the party cited anti-incumbency for having switched minister Suresh Bhardwaj’s seat from Shimla Urban to Kasumpti.
“Bhardwaj is not happy with the changing of his seat [from a place] where he spent so many years,” the functionary told ThePrint. “Although the party told him that there was anti-incumbency against him in Shimla Urban constituency, nobody knows [what will happen]. Last [election], Dhumal was defeated by changing his traditional seat. This time it could be Bhardwaj.”
In Nalagarh, former legislator Thakur, who lost the ticket to Congress turncoat and sitting MLA L.S. Rana, said that the BJP had ignored a “loyal worker”.
“ I’ve spent my life in the BJP but at the last moment a Congress turncoat was given a ticket,” he told ThePrint. “It’s now a dharam yudha — both against party hoppers and also to purify the party .”
One party functionary told ThePrint that while there’s an unwritten rule that general secretaries will not fight elections, three — Trilok Kapoor from Palampur, Trilok Jamwal from Bilaspur, and Rakesh Jamwal from Sundernagar — are doing so.
“So the rule is being bent to favour some favourites,” the functionary said.
In order to avoid a repeat of the 2021 Kotkhai bypoll, when BJP rebel Chetan Bragta defeated the party’s official candidate Neelam Seraik, the BJP high command has deputed Anurag, BJP’s Himachal in-charge Saudan Singh, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to stem a possible rebellion in the state.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s high command seems to be stepping in directly — national president J.P.Nadda called on the rebels to work for the party. A few, however, have so far refused to heed.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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