BJP works out caste equation carefully

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 10

The BJP, making a determined bid to retain all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal, has not only decided the candidates much in advance and gone whole-hog into the campaign but also selected the candidates with circumspection to balance the caste equation.

All four castes have been represented on the list which included two sitting MPs and two sitting MLAs. Sitting MPs from Mandi and Hamirpur Ram Swaroop Sharma and Anurag Thakur represent Brahmins and Rajputs, Food and Civil Supplies Minister in the BJP government Kishan Kapoor, contesting from Kangra, is from the Gaddi community and a tribal while Suresh Kashyap from Shimla (Reserved) belongs to the Scheduled Caste.

In the 2014 poll, the BJP had fielded two Brahmins, Ram Swaroop Sharma and Shanta Kumar, one Rajput, Anurag Thakur and one Scheduled Caste Virender Kashyap and there was no Gaddi or OBC candidate in the panel.

Various considerations weighed in the selection of Kapoor, who replaced BJP stalwart Shanta Kumar from Kangra and being a Gaddi is a strong point as this constituency has a large number of Gaddi votes. Besides, Kapoor is a known face, who had won the Assembly poll from Dharamsala five times since 1990 and secured berth as Cabinet minister thrice in BJP governments.

However, the Congress has fielded Pawan Kajal (OBC) and the percentage of the OBC is more than Gaddi in Kangra.

Suresh Kashyap, two-time MLA from Pachhad (Reserved) constituency, is an ex-serviceman pitted against Col Dhani Ram Shandil of the Congress, also an ex-serviceman, a former minister in the state and two-time MP from Shimla. The number of serving and ex-servicemen is over three lakh, a majority of which are in Hamirpur.

In Mandi, which elected a non-Rajput only four times, Sukh Ram in 1984,1991 and 1996 and Ram Swaroop in 2014, will witness a contest between two Brahmins for the first time as the Congress has also fielded Ashray Sharma , grandson of Sukh Ram.

BJP candidate from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur, three-time MP, is from the dominant Rajput community. Narain Chand Parashar of the Congress, who was elected from here in 1971, 1980 and 1984, was the only non-Rajput to represent the constituency.

The constituency has also seen two byelections in 2007 and 2008 and Rajput candidates, Prem Kumar Dhumal (BJP) won in 1989,1991 and 2007, Suresh Chandel (BJP) in 1998, 1999 and 2004, Anurag Thakur (BJP) in 2008, 2009 and 2014, Prem Chand Verma (Congress) in 1967, Vikram Singh (Congress) in 1996 and Ranjit Singh (Janata Party) in 1977.

As per the 2011 Census, Himachal had a total population of 68,56,509 of which 32.72 per cent are Rajputs, 25.22 percent are Scheduled Castes, 18 per cent Brahmins, 13.52 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC), 5.71 per cent Scheduled Tribes (ST) while other communities constituted 4.83 per cent.