Tough for Congress to win BJP strongholds in Mandi

Dipender Manta

Wresting the Dharampur and Sarkaghat Assembly seats from the BJP will be a challenging task for the Congress. Both these seats have been a BJP bastion for a long time.

Jal Shakti Minister Mahender Singh Thakur is representing the Dharampur Assembly constituency since 1990. He had won seven elections consecutively from this seat from different parties. During his political career, Mahendra Thakur has remained on key posts in the government and has ensured tremendous development in this constituency. As a result, he was emerged as an unbeatable candidate.

However this time the BJP, instead of Mahender Singh, chose his son Rajat Thakur to contest the election. Rajat Thakur was active in politics in the party for the past many years. He is banking on the development works done by his father in the constituency to garner votes.

The people of this constituency have been demanding development of Kamlah fort for the tourism purpose but no progress has been made in this direction so far. Apart from this, local village link roads were constructed in the constituency to connect villages with road facility, which need metalling. Residents have been demanding better health services. Lack of marketing facility for agricultural and horticultural produce is a poll issue among farmers.

Sources say that the CPM and Congress have joined hands to defeat the BJP candidate in this constituency. While Congress has fielded its old war horse Chander Shekhar to contest the election, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also fielded a candidate from this seat.

Mahender Singh Thakur will make every possible effort to ensure victory for his son and BJP candidate Rajat Thakur from Dharampur. Mahender Singh was elected for the first time as an MLA from Dharampur in 1990 as an independent candidate, re-elected in 1993 on Congress ticket, in 1998 on Himachal Vikas Congress ticket, in 2003 as a Loktantrik Morcha Himachal Pradesh candidate and in 2007, 2012 and 2017 on the BJP ticket.

In the last Assembly election in 2017, BJP candidate Mahender Singh Thakur had defeated his arch rival Congress candidate Chander Shekhar by a margin of 11964 votes.

Sarkaghat Assembly constituency is dominated by the BJP since 2007 from where BJP candidate Colonel Inder Singh won three Assembly elections consecutively in 2007, 2012 and 2017. However this time, the BJP has fielded new candidate Dileep Thakur to fight election. The BJP candidate may suffer because the supporters of BJP MLA Colonel Inder Singh are unhappy with the decision of party high command. The Congress is also facing factionalism on this seat, where Congress has fielded its old war horse Pawan Thakur, who had lost the last Assembly election to BJP MLA Col Inder Singh. Aam Aadmi Party has also fielded its candidate to contest the election.

Despite elected three times from Sarkaghat, Colonel Inder Singh failed to fulfil the key demands of people in this constituency. Construction of a new bus stand at Sarkaghat is a long pending demand of the locals. Absence of sewerage connectivity is an issue. Construction of Hamirpur-Mandi national highway via Sarkaghat and Kotli is going at a snail’s pace. Poor health services and poor road connectivity in rural areas are major concerns among public in this constituency.

This constituency has been dominated by the Congress for a long time from 1972 to 2003 as out of seven Assembly elections, six were won by the Congress. The BJP emerged winner only once in 1990. However, since 2007 the constituency has emerged as BJP citadel.

In the last assembly election in 2017, the BJP MLA Colonel Inder Singh had defeated his arch rival Congress candidate Pawan Thakur by a margin of 9302 votes.