Organisational elections expose factionalism, bickering in BJP
Even as BJP managed to appoint Presidents of 169 of the 171 Mandals in the state, the BJP organisational elections have exposed the bickering and factionalism due to rift in the party units following the entry of six former Congress MLAs along with their supporters into the saffron party.
It is after a lot of difficulty that the deferred elections for electing the Mandal President for Hamirpur and Sujanpur (Hamirpur) and Kutlehar and Gagret (Una) could be held today. Interestingly, in these constituencies the party units are divided due to the rift between the old BJP workers and the new entrants from the Congress along with the six Congress rebel MLAs.
However, even after a lot of deliberations and persuasion, the rift in Dehra Mandal has still not been resolved and the election of the Mandal President could not be held. BJP had fielded Independent MLA Hoshyar Singh as its candidate for the assembly by-poll from Dehra Assembly segment in Kangra district. Hoshyar lost the polls as Kamlesh Thakur, wife of the Chief Minister, won the election. The BJP unit in Dehra is opposed to Hoshyar Singh and his supporters, resulting in difficulty in holding the election of Mandal President.
Kangra MP and state vice president Dr Rajiv Bhardwaj, who has been appointed as the State Election Officer, said so far Mandal Presidents had been elected in 169 of the 171 Mandals in the state. It is after a lot of difficulty that Mandal President elections were finally held today in Sujanpur Tihra, Bamsan (Tauni Devi), Gagret, Kutlehar, Hamirpur (Urban), Hamirpur (Rural), Dhatwal (Bhijri), Daulatpur and Dera Baba Rudranand.
The tussle between the old guard of the BJP and the supporters of the Congress legislators who switched sides after the Rajya Sabha election last year to get their own loyalist appointed as Mandal President in these assembly segments had delayed the holding of the elections.
Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri and Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh, have been taking a dig at the BJP by stating that the party is divided into factions led by National BJP Chief JP Nadda, Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, state President Rajeev Bindal and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur.
Following the rebellion and cross voting by six Congress MLAs in the Rajya Sabha election on February 27 earlier this year, the BJP had opened its doors for these six legislators. Following their disqualification from the Assembly under the Anti Defection Law, all six MLAs- Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Devinder Bhutto (Gagret) and Chaitanya Sharma (Kutlehar) were given the party ticket by the BJP for the by-polls.
Barring Sudhir Sharma and ID Lakhanpal, all other four Congress MLAs lost the elections. In Sujanpur also dispute has arisen after the induction of Rajinder Rana into the BJP. Having defeated the former CM PK Dhumal in the 2017 assembly polls, Rana and his men are being opposed by the old BJP workers.
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