Constituency Watch Hamirpur: Eyeing 5th straight win, Anurag Thakur banks on Modi charisma

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, May 25

The election for the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency from where Union Minister Anurag Thakur is seeking a fifth consecutive term is playing out differently, with the slogan of ‘Ek vote PM, ek vote CM’ gelling with the holding of simultaneous bypoll for the six Assembly segments.

Counter charges

• The BJP is hitting out at Congress for the failed guarantees, mainly Rs 1,500 for women
• The Congress is targeting the Modi government of leaving Himachal ‘high and dry’ during the monsoon havoc last year

Four of the six Assembly byelections in Sujanpur and Barsar (Hamirpur) and Kutlehar and Gagret (Una), being held due to the disqualification of the rebel Congress legislators, are a part of the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat. Also, political bigwigs, including BJP national president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, belong to the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.

Normally, people have low interest in the Lok Sabha polls as compared to Assembly elections but the simultaneous byelection in six Vidhan Sabha seats is generating a lot of heat in the backdrop of unsuccessful ‘Operation Lotus’ to pull down the Congress regime earlier this year.

With CM Sukhu whipping up the sentiment of ‘janbal aur dhanbal ki ladai’ (fight between public strength and money power) to evoke sympathy, there seems to be an undercurrent against the manner in which the six Congress MLAs defected to the BJP within 15 months of being elected to seek re-election on the saffron ticket. As such the voting pattern for the Lok Sabha and Assembly bypoll could be very different with voters in Himachal being very aware. “MLAs who have switched sides within 15 months and seeking re-election must be taught a lesson as it is an insult of the voters,” says Satish Kumar, a resident of Sujanpur.

“This will prove to be the toughest election for Anurag which the results will prove on June 4,” asserts CM Sukhu. The Congress has hit out at the Modi-led NDA regime of leaving Himachal ‘high and dry’ and not extending any special assistance in the wake of unprecedented monsoons which wreaked havoc last year.

The BJP is seeking votes in the name of Modi-Anurag duo while focusing on the development that has taken place over the past few years, including coming up of the AIIMS at Bilaspur, medical college at Hamirpur, IIIT at Una and expansion of four-lane highway and good road network in the segment. “We have to vote for Anurag to make Modi the PM who has to be given a third term in the interest of the nation,” says Prakash Chand, a resident of Hamirpur town.

The BJP is targeting the Congress for its failed guarantees, mainly Rs 1,500 guarantee for women made at the time of Assembly polls.

Although anti-incumbency is bound to act as a deterrent with Thakur seeking a fifth term, with Congress fielding a lightweight, former MLA Satpal Raizada, the BJP does not seem to be worried with Anurag getting the benefit of the stature of his father PK Dhumal, a former two-time CM. “For me every election is important and whether the victory margin increases or decreases, it is immaterial to me,” says Anurag. He had won the 2019 polls by a margin of 3.99 lakh votes.

The ‘Agnipath’ scheme of recruitment in the Army is also coming up in the political discourses in the area with a sizeable number of serving and retired Army personnel openly airing their displeasure over the four-year service in the Army, a dream of the youth from Himachal.

The districts of Hamirpur, Una, Bilaspur and two Assembly segments of Kangra and one of Mandi form the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, where the BJP is placed most comfortably out of all the four seats in Himachal.