Sanjay questions induction of OBC leader Chaudhary in BJP

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Dharamsala, July 30

With Rakesh Chaudhary, an OBC leader from AAP who contested as an independent from Dharamsala in the 2019 byelection, joining the BJP, party leader Sanjay Sharma has questioned the move.

Sanjay, talking to mediapersons here today, said the way the BJP was making caste calculations in Dharamsala for the next Assembly elections was not in party’s interests. He said any leader was free to join the party. However, leaders joining with ticket assurance could not augur well for the party.

Move can misfire

Some leaders had given the impression to the top leadership that OBCs matters a lot. The fact is that higher castes make 50 per cent of the electorate in Dharamsala. —Sanjay Sharma, BJP leader

Some leaders from the state had given the impression to the top leadership of the party that OBCs mattered a lot in the constituency. However, the fact was that higher castes, including the Brahmins, the Rajputs, make 50 per cent of the electorate here. If the higher caste people got polarised against the BJP, it might not augur well for the party, he said.

Sanjay also alleged that the state leadership was ignoring the Brahmins in Kangra. There was not even a single seat in the entire Kangra parliamentary constituency from where the party had given ticket to a Brahmin candidate. This is despite the fact that at one time Shanta Kumar, a Brahmin leader, was the CM. If the party continued to ignore the Brahmins, they might polarise against the party.

Though Sanjay Sharma had gone vocal against the party decision to let Rakesh Chaudhary join the BJP and consider him among the probable candidates from Dharamsala, sources said many BJP leaders from Dharamsala were expressing resentment at the party level. With the elections drawing closer, the party might face dissent from Dharamsala.