New Delhi: Days before the Himachal Pradesh election on 12 November, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a challenge from its own leaders turned rebels who are standing as independent candidates in more than a dozen seats of the 68-member assembly.
The BJP Monday expelled five such leaders for anti-party activities, including four former MLAs — Tejwant Singh Negi from Kinnaur, Kishori Lal from Anni, Manohar Dhiman from Indora and KL Thakur from Nalagarh — and Kripal Parmar, hitherto one of its Himachal vice-presidents.
After being denied tickets by the party, all four MLAs are contesting as Independents from their constituencies, while Parmar is standing in Fatehpur against the BJP candidate, Rakesh Pathania.
A sixth leader, Ram Singh — another vice-president of the state BJP — was expelled Tuesday for contesting as an Independent from Kullu against the party’s official candidate, Narottam Thakur.
BJP president J.P. Nadda has been making consistent efforts to placate the rebels and, after hectic parleys in the past week, managed to persuade three leaders — former MP Maheshwar Singh who had filed his nomination from Kullu Sadar, Yuvraj Kapoor who planned to fight from Karsog, and former Dharamshala block president Anil Choudhary — to withdraw from the race.
Yet, more than 17 BJP leaders are still in the fray as Independent candidates.
Ram Singh told ThePrint: “It’s the people’s fight. I am a representative of aam jan (common people). I have never seen Narrotam Thakur before. The party denied tickets to me and Maheshwar Singh and rewarded newcomers. It is an insult to party workers who have been slogging for so long.”
A senior BJP leader from Himachal Pradesh said, “Only results will tell whether our experiment was right or wrong.”
“This time, party leaders, despite pressure and persuasion, are not ready to accept the high command’s word. Many are questioning our ticket distribution system,” he said, adding that the “prime minister (Narendra Modi) had to intervene” in ticket distribution as the “top (Himachal) leadership was confused about many seats due to contradictory internal survey reports”.
BJP vice-president Rattan Singh Pal admitted there was a problem in ticket distribution in many places, but was convinced that people would vote only for the BJP symbol.
He told ThePrint: “Every worker wants a ticket but it is not possible to accommodate everyone. It shows that we are coming to power when there is a huge rush for party tickets in every constituency. In a cadre-based party, people vote only on the party symbol.”
“Anybody who is making claims should remember that whatever they are is because of the party. We are sure that despite the rebellion at a few places, we will get a majority and form a government in Himachal Pradesh,” he added.
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Meet the rebels
Apart from the six expelled leaders, some prominent BJP rebels who’ve vowed to fight the polls despite party pressure include former secretary and media in-charge Praveen Sharma in Mandi; Kulbhash Chand Chaudhary in Kangra; Joginder Singh in Shahpur; BJP Scheduled Tribes cell vice-president Vipin Nehria in Dharamshala; Hiteshwar Singh in Banjar; Abhishek Thakur in Sundernagar; R.R. Kondal in Jhanduta; Subhash Sharma in Bilaspur and Manish Tomar in Pachhad. All are fighting against BJP candidates as Independents.
In CM Jairam Thakur’s home district of Mandi, rebel leader Gian Chand is standing in the Nachan seat, former minister Roop Singh’s son Abhishek Thakur is fighting from Sundernagar against BJP general secretary Rakesh Jamwal, and rebel leader Praveen Sharma is posing a challenge to former Union minister Sukh Ram’s son, Anil Sharma, in Mandi Sadar.
The most prominent rebel is Parmar, who has refused to quit the polls despite “phone calls by Nadda and Himachal Chief Minister Jairam Thakur himself”.
He told ThePrint: “Whether I win or lose, I will fight the polls to establish a value system in the party. At this time in life, I want to contest on public demand. Several times, promises were made but not kept.”
After the BJP fielded Reeta Dhiman from Indora — a reserved seat — former MLA Manohar Dhiman decided he would fight her as an Independent. Likewise, the BJP’s Jawali MLA, Arjun Singh has also decided to contest the election on his own.
In Dharamshala, when sitting MLA Vishal Nehria — a leader who faced allegations of domestic violence last year — was dropped, his supporters resigned from the party en masse.
In Chamba, the threat of a rebellion reportedly forced the BJP to change its candidate. After the party announced party leader Indira Kapoor as its candidate, sitting MLA Pawan Nayyar called a meeting of his supporters in protest.
Sensing trouble, the party quickly back-pedalled, announcing Nayyar’s wife Neelam as the new candidate. Kapoor is now fighting as an Independent.
Party sources, however, told ThePrint that the BJP decided to change its candidate because of corruption charges against Kapoor.
In August 2021, Kapoor, a former member of the Chamba Zila Parishad, and several others were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for embezzling grants given for development projects.
In Nadda’s home district of Bilaspur, Subhash Sharma is challenging Trilok Jamwal, another BJP general secretary. In Kullu, Maheshwar Singh has withdrawn his nomination but Ram Singh is still in the fray. In Kangra, BJP candidate Pawan Kajal, who was inducted from the Congress, is facing a fight from rebel Kulbhash Choudhary.
‘What’s the difference between us and Congress?’
According to the rebel leaders, they are feeling cheated because of BJP tickets being given to “turncoats”. Many expressed unhappiness over the new BJP policy of distributing tickets based on internal surveys of MLAs and anti-incumbency.
Expelled leader Kishori Lal told ThePrint: “We nurtured the party, but it rewarded one turncoat who had joined only six months ago with a ticket. He had made accusations against PM Modi in the past, but the party forgot his sins and instead punished its own worker.”
“My fight is against those who ignore the cadre at the last moment. In the name of ‘winnability’, the BJP has given a ticket to Lokendra Kumar (in Anni),” he added.
Dhiman, who won from Indora as an Independent in 2012 and who was inducted into the BJP in 2017, said he was promised that year that he would be given a ticket for the next assembly election. He told ThePrint: “This party promised a ticket when I joined but has not kept its word.”
In Nalagarh, former legislator Thakur, who lost the party ticket to Congress turncoat and sitting MLA L.S. Rana, also alleged 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 yuddh — both against party-hoppers and also to purify the party.”
Another rebel candidate said: “This new culture of distributing tickets based on surveys is ending the career of political workers. There is no credibility to such private surveys and, if the party is really serious about beating anti-incumbency, MLAs should be informed a year in advance about public resentment so that they can improve their work.”
The leader added that workers “invest so many years of their lives in the party but if tickets are denied to them at the last minute in favour of turncoats and imported candidates, the whole idea of cadre-based organisation gets diluted”.
“Then what is the difference between us and the Congress?” the leader asked.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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