Voters reject Sukh Ram's politics of opportunism

Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Shimla, May 23

The results of the Mandi Lok Sabha seat have exploded the myth that former Telecommunication Minister Sukh Ram is still a force to reckon with as the electorate outrightly rejected his family-centric politics of opportunism. 

Sukh Ram (93), who has become synonymous with “Aya Ram, Gaya Ram” politics, suffered a jolt as Ashray Sharma, his grandson and Congress nominee, suffered a hammering defeat at the hands of the BJP’s Ram Swaroop. Though there is no denying the fact that the fight was not between the two candidates but between Sukh Ram and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, the crushing defeat reflects the anger among the electorate against dynastic politics and party hopping for personal gains. 

The future of the Sukh Ram family seems bleak with his son Anil Sharma, sitting MLA from Mandi Sadar, where the Congress trailed too, likely to be in the BJP’s firing line. He is bound to be expelled from the BJP and could also lose his Assembly membership under anti-defection law for anti-party activities. The gamble, played by Sukh Ram to ensure the electoral debut of his grandson at the cost of son Anil, seems to have boomeranged. 

“The claims of Sukh Ram that the BJP managed to win nine of the 10 Assembly seats in Mandi in 2017 because of him have proved to be wrong,” said CM Jai Ram Thakur on Sukh Ram losing his charisma. People had rejected Sukh Ram’s model of politics of opportunism which the victory clearly showed, he added. 

Though the Congress lost the Mandi seat, the devastating defeat clearly reflects the electorate’s rejection of Sukh Ram, who has been a three-time MP from Mandi and a colossal figure in Congress politics, especially a powerful minister in the Narasimha Rao’s cabinet, wielding immense clout. Virbhadra, arch rival of Sukh Ram, though campaigned in Mandi, he made adverse remarks about his shifting loyalties, causing more harm than benefit. 

Sukh Ramm along with his sonm had floated his own political outfit, the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) in 1998, post-corruption charges but later returned to the Congress. However, hem along with his MLA son Anil Sharma and grandsonm left the Congress to join the BJP just before the 2017 polls. He decided to return to the Congress, notwithstanding the humiliation he suffered in the Congress, only in the pursuit of Lok Sabha ticket for his grandson, a move which boomeranged. 

Even though Pratibha Singh, wife of then Virbhadra, had lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Mandi, then her defeat was not disgraceful as she lost by a mere 39,856 votes.