Rakesh Pathania shifted to Fatehpur, faces ‘outsider’ tag

Lalit Mohan

To beat anti-incumbency and infighting within party, the BJP has switched its candidates in the Nurpur and Fatehpur Assembly constituency.

The Nurpur Assembly constituency has been a stronghold of Forest Minister Rakesh Pathania since 1998. However, in the list of candidates declared recently, the BJP has shifted Rakesh Pathania to the Fatehpur constituency.

The bete noire of Rakesh Pathania, Ranvir Singh Nikka, who had rebelled against Pathania and organized rallies against him, has been given BJP ticket from Nurpur.

Rakesh Pathania has accepted the party decision. When contacted, he said that he would abide by the decision of party high command and contest from Fatehpur Assembly constituency.

Sources here said that the BJP has taken the decision to switch candidates from Nurpur and Fatehpur to quell infighting in Nurpur assembly constituency. Ranvir Singh Nikka had already declared that he would contest as independent in case Pathania was fielded as BJP candidate from Nurpur.

The plea to send Pathania to Fatehpur was taken as 15 panchayats of Nurpur assembly constituency had become part of Fatehpur assembly constituency after delimitation and he holds sway in the area. Moreover, the BJP had been consistently losing Fatehpur assembly constituency since 2003 and party felt Pathania can put up a better fight in the area.

However, Pathania would have to face outsider tag in Fatehpur and face the challenge of warring groups of the BJP from the area with him. With the BJP opting for Ranvir Nikka as its candidate from Nurpur, it would be a straight fight between him and the Congress candidate, Ajay Mahajan the district president of Congress in Kangra. Ajay Mahajan might gain in case the supporters of Rakesh Pathania do not accept Ranvir Nikka as their leader and BJP cadre in the area remains divided. Mahajan is banking on anti- incumbency against the present state government.

From Fatehpur, Bhawani Singh Pathania is the Congress candidate. He won the Fatehpur byelections in 2021 after the demise of his father Sujjan Singh Pathania, a senior Congress leader and former minister who had won the constituency in 2017. Bhawani Pathania might benefit from infighting within BJP in Fatehpur assembly constituency. In Fatehpur BJP was divided into camps of Baldev Thakur and former MP Kirpal Singh Parmar factions. Now both of these leaders have been sidelined by party and Rakesh Pathania has been fielded from Fatehpur.

Former BJP MP, Rajan Sushant, who was once a Brahmin face of party in Kangra, has now joined AAP and would also contest Fatehpur as AAP candidate. Rajan Sushant also makes a dent in vote bank of BJP in the area.

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