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New Delhi: The BJP’s national executive meeting last Sunday did not discuss the party’s crushing defeat in the bypolls in Himachal Pradesh, where it is in power and is set to face assembly polls later next year. but the state unit is The central high command, mainly the party’s national president JP Nadda, is in no mood to give relaxation.
BJP lost The results announced on November 2 included the Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly by-elections, as well as the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. It captured the Jubbal-Kotkhai and Mandi constituencies.
Since the defeat, a blame game has broken out in the Himachal BJP, but much anger among local leaders is reserved for Nadda and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
Ticket distribution and ‘internal sabotage’
According to Himachal BJP leaders, the primary reason for the crushing defeat was “unilateral decision taken by the high command in distribution of tickets”.
The state BJP, which is in the process of reviewing the reasons for the setback, is claiming that the right candidates were not given tickets in the three assembly seats as the party had decided to avoid dynasty politics. They also blame “internal sabotage”.
In Mandi, the party believes that Congress’s Pratibha Singh, wife of late former CM Virbhadra Singh, won due to a wave of sympathy after his demise in July this year. Along with all these factors, the high rate of inflation in the country is also being counted among the main reasons for the defeat.
The defeat was such that in Jubbal-Kotkhai, BJP’s official candidate Neelam Saraik lost bail due to the presence of rebel party leader Chetan Bragata, who finished second only to Rohit Thakur of the Congress. Bragata is the son of BJP MLA Narinder Bragta, who died in June leading to a by-election.
Two other seats, Arki and Fatehpur, were held by the Congress, which managed to retain them despite not being in power in the state.
“The high command had taken a firm decision that tickets would not be allotted to family members due to allegations of dynastic politics. This is the reason why Chetan Bragta was not given a party ticket,” Himachal BJP president Suresh Kashyap told ThePrint.
“Ultimately, he contested as a rebel candidate and we lost Jubbal-Kotkhai because of it. In Mandi, we lost by a margin of just one per cent vote. There was some sympathy for the late Virbhadra Singh and rising inflation also became an issue there. High prices of petrol and diesel, the inflation factor, is affecting the voting pattern. The remaining two seats, Arki and Fatehpur, were occupied by the Congress and there too we had to face a lot of infighting.
His views were supported by a cabinet minister from Himachal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The party lost these by-elections in the three assembly constituencies following wrong criteria for candidate selection and allotting tickets to wrong candidates. Chetan Bragata’s name was sent by the state unit for the Jubbal-Kotkhai seat, but the high command did not allot him a ticket,” the minister said.
“This was despite the fact that he was assured a ticket about three months back and was asked to join the campaign immediately. All BJP workers in Jubbal-Kotkhai page headFrom booth in-charge to Bragta campaigned. He and his father (Narinder Bragata) were close to (former CM) Prem Kumar Dhumal. He was sacrificed to destroy his influence and in the end a ticket was allotted to a very weak candidate.
State unit vice-president Kripal Parmar also stressed on the criteria for selecting candidates, claiming that it has become arbitrary in recent years.
“The party chooses the parameters for the selection of the candidate as per its convenience. It had earlier said during the last election that those involved in internal sabotage would not be given tickets in future.
“In Fatehpur, however, Baldev Thakur, who contested as an independent in 2017, was allotted the party symbol. Similarly, Neelam Saraik, who contested as an independent in 2017 against the party’s official candidate Narinder Bragata, was given a ticket from Jubbal-Kotkhai. He lost his bail on the seat and holds the record for receiving the fewest votes (2,644) in the BJP-ruled state. All this was done by misleading the central leadership of the party and giving wrong feedback.
A Himachal BJP vice-president told ThePrint on condition of anonymity that the party missed an opportunity to snatch some seats from the Congress.
In Arki, where Virbhadra Singh had emerged victorious in the last assembly election, there was a good chance of snatching the seat from the Congress. A close aide of Virbhadra Singh had revolted against local Congress candidate Sanjay Awasthi. But the BJP could not take advantage of this tussle in the Congress camp.
,Ratanpal Singh, a close aide of Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey, has been given the ticket. He was defeated in the last election as well. Mangal Pandey was in-charge of Himachal at the time of ticket distribution, and due to his close association with BJP national president JP Nadda, Ratanpal Singh was allotted the ticket in place of Govind Ram Sharma, who is a two-time MLA from here. Seat.”
Fall in vote-share a big concern
The ruling party traditionally has the upper hand in by-elections. But the BJP’s troubles with its crushing defeat are compounded by the fact that its vote-share in these constituencies has fallen drastically.
In the 2017 assembly elections in Fatehpur, the BJP had got 49 per cent votes, but it came down to 32 per cent in the by-elections.
In Jubbal-Kotkhai, Congress had around 52 per cent vote-share, while rebel Chetan Bragata managed 41 per cent, while BJP’s Saraik got only four per cent votes. In the 2017 assembly elections, the Congress had around 42 per cent vote-share, while the BJP managed 49 per cent.
In Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, the vote-share of the Congress has increased from 27 per cent in the 2019 parliamentary elections to around 49 per cent in these elections. BJP has come down from 69.7 per cent in 2019 to about 48 per cent this time.
Another senior BJP leader said that CM Thakur will have to blame a lot for the defeat.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur completely misled the high command in Fatehpur seat. Since Kripal Parmar got the assembly ticket in 2017 due to personal intervention of PM Modi, the state level leaders decided to sideline him this time. To sabotage his candidature, fake reports were sent to the PMO; So this time he was not given a ticket.
“Kotkhai seat was sacrificed due to internal squabble between JP Nadda camp and Prem Kumar Dhumal camp. CM Thakur did not want to give ticket to (Union Minister) Anurag Thakur and Chetan Bragata, who is considered very close to Dhumal. So the ticket was allotted to a weaker candidate in Neelam Saraik. But even he (Chief Minister) could not ensure his victory.
The relationship between Prem Kumar Dhumal and JP Nadda has been very bad for a long time. In 2010, when Dhumal was the CM of the state, he requested the high command to include Nadda in the central team. Following this request, the then BJP president Nitin Gadkari removed Nadda from state politics and appointed him as the party’s national general secretary, giving Dhumal a free rein in state affairs. Later, Nadda was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
But over the years, Nadda’s stature has increased within the party due to his closeness with PM Modi. He first became a minister in the Modi cabinet and is now the national president of the party.
Nadda has also managed to make his close aide Jai Ram Thakur the CM. But the crushing defeat in the by-election has raised questions about Thakur’s leadership and the decisions of the high command.
(Edited by Arun Prashant)
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