Infighting plagues Cong, BJP in Fatehpur

Lalit Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, October 6

With the Congress declaring Bhawani Pathania as party candidate for the coming Fatehpur Assembly bypoll, the stage is set for the litmus test for the ruling party in Kangra, politically the most significant district in the state having 15 Assembly segments.

Bhawani Pathania will be too keen to retain the seat that was earlier represented by his father, a prominent Rajput leader in Kangra district and former minister Sujan Singh Pathania. Fatehpur is going to the bypoll due to death of Sujjan Singh Pathania.

The Congress has fielded Bhawani Pathania presuming that he will get sympathy vote due to demise of his father and be able to lure Rajput votes.

The BJP, on the other hand, is yet to declare its candidate from the constituency.

The state level election committee that held a meeting at Dharamsala on October 3 had sent a panel of three names to the party high command from the constituency. Sources said that former MP Kirpal Parmar was among the frontrunners.

Both BJP and Congress candidates are likely to face challenge from within their own parties in the byelections. Bhawani was facing challenge from various local Congress leaders. Many party leaders held protests demanding that ticket should be given from among common workers. Former Congress minister Vijai Singh Mankotia, in a press conference held last week, claimed that many Congress leaders from Fatehpur had written to him.

The Congress leaders are against ticket being passed on to the next generation in the same family.

The leaders had claimed that if the party ticket was to be passed from father to son where the local leaders, who have been working for party for year, would go, Mankotia had alleged.

The BJP is also a divided house in Fatehpur. In the 2017 Assembly elections Baldev Thakur, who claimed himself to be local BJP leader from Fatehpur, had contested as an independent that led to division of party votes and defeat of official candidate of party Kirpal Parmar. Sources said that a prominent BJP leader from Nurpur had proposed to give party ticket from Fatehpur to a woman leader to avoid infighting.

However, his suggestion was turned down by the senior party leaders. Now it remains to be seen if the BJP can bring all BJP leaders on one platform during the byelections.

Rajan Sushant, former BJP MP who has left the party, has already announced that he will contest the Fatehpur byelection. Sushant has been holding a dharna in Fetehpur for the past many months to support the demand of employees to implement the old pension scheme.

Sushant has been aggressively campaigning in Fatehpur assembly constituency and has potential of damaging the prospects of the ruling party. Sushant has earlier represented Fatehpur Assembly constituency as a BJP MLA and a minister in BJP government from 1998 to 2003.