‘Third front’ parties wiped out

Kuldeep Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Shimla, May 23

The voters once again rejected the ‘third front’ candidates from the CPM, the BSP and 18 independents in what observers termed a “silent unprecedented Modi wave” in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections.

The voters once again demonstrated that there was no space for the ‘third front’ parties in the bipolar political space occupied by the BJP and the Congress in Himachal Pradesh over the decades”.

The CPM’s lone candidate from Mandi Daleep Singh Kaith secured 14,838 votes, the highest by any non-BJP and non-Congress candidate, improving CPM’s vote share to 1.58 per cent from Mandi. The CPM vote share was 0.87 per cent in 2014 general elections when the CPM had contested from Mandi and Shimla seats.

The BSP, Mandi Swabhimam Party, Navbharat Ekta Dal, Rashtriya Azad Manch, All India Forward Block, Bahujan Mukti Party and 18 independents were completely eliminated.

The BSP, with its poll slogan of social justice, faced complete rout on all the four seats, with all the candidates losing their security deposits, dashing its hopes of securing 15 per cent vote share to the ground. BSP Shimla candidate Vikram Singh got 7,759 votes, Dr Kehar Singh, BSP president from Kangra, got 8,866 votes, Ses Ram from Mandi got 9,060 votes, and Hamirpur candidate Des Raj got 6,974 votes.

The lone woman candidate Nisha Katoch, who had contested from Kangra, secured just 1,398 votes.

As many as 17 other independent in fray lost their security deposits.