Himachal Polls Tomorrow, Modi’s Pleas Are Dismissed As Last Words, The Ordeal Is Also Nadar: Narendra Modi knows well the food of the party in Himachal Pradesh. The hill state is the birthplace and political career of BJP president JP Nadda himself. According to the pre-election survey, the BJP may remain in power for the second consecutive election in Himachal like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
But as the day wore on, it was clear from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the BJP’s state and central leadership were not banking on the comforting results of the pre-poll survey. In the campaign, he told the people of Himachal, to forget the party, and vote for me. Imprinting the Padma is a vote of confidence in Narendra Modi. Not only that, the campaign in Himachal will make it seem like Lok Sabha elections are taking place in the state. Various welfare projects of the central government are mentioned in the mouths of leaders and in posters, festoons, and banners. The candidate is also the prime minister.
But the other camp doesn’t think it’s too wet. Still, the party’s rebels are the cause of concern for the Padma Army. They have to face rebel candidates in 21 of the 68 seats in the state. Polling will be held in that state tomorrow.
Congress is also embarrassed about the rebels. Such a situation has never been seen in the past in this hill state which is apparently politically calm. A few months ago, it was thought that the continuation of the two-way battle between Congress and BJP would be broken by a three-way fight due to the presence of the Aam Aadmi Party.
But AAP himself withdrew from the fight. Manish Sisodia, who is in charge of the party in this state, has been shifted to Gujarat long ago by UP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. As a result, the three teams are not fighting.
However, the fight is not two-sided. As the third party, Bagira has thrown a tough challenge. Both BJP and Congress are suffering from the same problem. A section of poll experts is not ruling out the possibility of a three-cornered assembly. However, in that case, BJP will have more chances to form the government. The rebels of the party have said that they are fighting to oppose some leaders of the party. There is no conflict with the party.
Some powerful leaders of BJP’s 21 Bagi candidates to whom the central leadership of the party refused to give tickets. Such as Kripal Parmar, who was close to BJP president Nadda for a long time. Parmar is now contesting from the Fatepur seat in the Kangra district. He alleged that Nadda was behind not giving him the ticket.
BJP has given a ticket to Rakesh Pathania in place of Parmar from Fatepur, while Bhawani Singh Pathania is contesting from Congress. Last time Parmar won by a margin of only 1000 votes. This time again he is the rebel candidate. Added to this is the anti-establishment vote.
Congress is also suffering from the problem of rebel candidates. Hand-sign candidates in at least a dozen seats have to face BJP as well as party rebels. Congress is already suffering from the lack of guardians due to the sudden death of seven-time former Chief Minister like Virbhadra Singh. Many feel that Veerbhadra’s absence is giving enough momentum to the Congress.
The eastern part of Himachal Pradesh is hilly and the western part is mostly plain. Leaders like Jaswant Singh Parmar, Thakur Ram Lal, and Virbhadra Singh were the architects of the Congress stronghold in the hill country. After 2007, Congress has always been ahead of the BJP in the polls here. The bulk of that vote was from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Both these communities have thirty percent of the votes. That is, sixty percent of the total voters are from these two communities. But the BJP has so much grip on this vote bank of the Congress that in the last few elections they got more than 40 percent votes.
On the other hand, due to relatively little development in the western region during the Congress rule, the BJP has created a lot of influence in that area. This time in the campaign, the Prime Minister made the issue of underdevelopment in this area different. He said that Lok Sabha seats are fewer from Himachal. So Congress did not show enthusiasm for development here.
It is noteworthy that many of the top leaders of the BJP in Himachal are from the western region. Two-time former chief ministers like Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal, as well as the current BJP national president JP Nadda hail from the region. As a result, the Himachal vote is a face-saving battle. He has decided on the candidate for 68 seats.
