HLP chief puts merger ball in supporters’ court

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 24

The political honeymoon of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) chief Maheshwar Singh is finally over.

The latter has thrown the ball of merging his four-and-a-five-month-old party with the BJP in the court of his supporters, including the core group, which is about to meet to take the final call.

The loyalist of Kangra BJP MP and senior-most BJP leader, Shanta Kumar, Maheshwar recently had a series of closed-door meetings with Shanta, Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal and other BJP leaders during BJP’s recent three-days sammelan in Kullu.

Though Dhumal had termed Maheshwar’s HLP as the Congress B-team in the Vidhan Sabha, the latter’s recent meetings with the BJP leaders are being viewed as a new political development ahead of the 2017 state Assembly elections.

When asked to comment on the possible HLP-BJP merger, Maheshwar said: “I will consult all HLP leaders and his supporters before taking a decision.”

The HLP chief has been exploring the possibility of a merger with the BJP as his party has failed to make an impact as a third alternative in the state.

The speculations over the HLP-BJP merger gained ground soon after the two-year long bonhomie between Virbhadra and Maheshwar ended when the former clipped his wing by inducting his brother, Karan Singh, a Congress Banjar legislator, in his Cabinet as the Ayurveda Minister last year. Karan was given the authority to run the affairs of Kullu district last year, thus ending Maheshwar’s clout in the district, revealed political analysts.

It was against this political development that Maheshwar started weighing options of the merger with the BJP which he had left with a heavy heart after his relation with the then BJP senior leader and chief minister, PK Dhumal, ebbed.

He founded his HLP party, a breakaway group of the BJP in February 2012, and contested the state Assembly poll, but won just one seat.

On the merger, HLP spokesperson Mahender Singh Sofat said, “The final call will be taken by the HLP core group which is expected to meet here soon.”