While the saffron party is yet to come terms with the defeat in the Vidhan Sabha elections, it's the Bharatiya Janata Party's core group that will decide on the fate of the leaders who purportedly worked against official nominees.
The reverse in the Vidhan Sabha elections has triggered a blame game between the factions owing allegiance to former chief ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal and his arch rival Shanta Kumar.
Dhumal himself has held wrong distribution of ticket responsible as one of main factors for the party's defeat. The Shanta faction is blaming Dhumal for having ignored the party during the past five years. The BJP faced worst of rebellion in the Kangra district where there were rebels in at least nine of the total 15 assembly segments which cost the party heavily in the elections.
The factionalism between two factions hit a new low as the party men had been sending anonymous letters to the high command that were even being posted to the offices of newspapers.
It was during the first week of this month that the BJP had convened a daylong meet in Una to analyse the factors for electoral losses. Party leaders, comprising BJP's state incharge Kalraj Mishra, his deputy Shyam Jajju, state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti and the party's national organisational secretary Ram Lal had sought feedback from individual candidates. There were wide spread reports of election being sabotaged by its own party workers.
{{/usCountry}}It was during the first week of this month that the BJP had convened a daylong meet in Una to analyse the factors for electoral losses. Party leaders, comprising BJP's state incharge Kalraj Mishra, his deputy Shyam Jajju, state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti and the party's national organisational secretary Ram Lal had sought feedback from individual candidates. There were wide spread reports of election being sabotaged by its own party workers.
{{/usCountry}}Leaders from both the groups, the one led by Prem Kumar Dhumal and the other led by Shanta Kumar, accused each other of hampering the winnability of prospects. In the wake of intense factional rift, both Dhumal and Shanta Kumar were not deliberately invited to the meeting.
Just before the meeting, staunch Shanta loyalist former industries minister Kishan Kapoor had gone public, accusing the Dhumal camp of sabotaging the elections.
"The report has already been prepared on the basis of feedback sought from leaders during the daylong meeting in Una. We are short-listing names of those who have worked against the party and official nominees," state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti told Hindustan Times.
"Names of shortlisted workers will be placed before the core committee," he said, adding, "the core group committee will meet next month".
The BJP's core group comprises of state president Satpal Singh Satti, both former chief ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, BJP's state incharge Kalraj Mishra and his deputy Shyam Jajju and party's national general secretary JP Nadda.
Recently, the BJP has also constituted a committee, headed by state party chief Satpal Singh Satti.
The committee, after holding discussions with all the 68 constituency-level BJP mandals and district chiefs, will finalise its report by January 30. The report will then be placed before the core group meeting.