Poor bypoll show in Himachal, BJP may rework strategy

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, June 5

Having burnt its fingers in the recently held Assembly elections by fielding all six Congress turncoats, the BJP may have to exercise caution while finalising nominees for another three Assembly bypolls to be held in Nalagarh, Dehra and Hamirpur constituencies within the next six months.

With the BJP winning only two of the six bypolls — Dharamsala and Barsar — it becomes clear that the move to induct six Congress MLAs into the party and then giving them the ticket has not gone down well with the saffron party cadre.

It now remains to be seen whether the BJP will give the ticket to all three Independent MLAs — Hoshyar Singh from Dehra in Kangra, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and KL Thakur from Nalagarh in Solan — for the bypolls in these segments. The three had joined the BJP on March 23, a day after submitting their resignation to the Speaker.

With the acceptance of their resignation on June 3, the strength of the House was reduced to 65. The Congress’ tally in the Vidhan Sabha after the win in four byelection seats has gone up to 38, while the BJP has 27 MLAs.

If the BJP decides to give ticket to the new entrants, it has to face opposition from senior leaders, including former ministers Ramesh Dhwala and Ravinder Ravi (Dehra); and former MLAs Lakhvinder Rana (Nalagarh) and Narinder Thakur (Hamirpur). Rana had earlier voiced his grouse when the three were inducted into the BJP on March 23 along with six disqualified Congress legislators. The three MLAs had sat on a dharna outside the Vidhan Sabha on March 30 to press for the early acceptance of their resignation. They were hoping that the bypolls in their segments would be held along with the Lok Sabha and six Vidhan Sabha byelections on June 1, which could not happen as the Speaker kept his decision on their resignation in abeyance.

The three had even met Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla and sought his intervention on the matter. They had even failed to get any relief from the court.

Byelections due in three segments

• BJP fielded all six Congress turncoats in the recent bypoll, but managed to win only 2
• Move to induct turncoats didn’t go down well with senior party leaders and party cadre
• It now remains to be seen if the BJP gives the ticket to 3 Independents who resigned as MLA and joined the party