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After Kripal Parmar, posters against BJP candidate Rakesh Pathania come up in Fatehpur
Rakesh Pathania, a third-term MLA, was shifted to Fatehpur by BJP to buck the anti-incumbency trend, notwithstanding the resentment among local leaders.
With the Fatehpur constituency in electorally significant Kangra headed for a four-cornered poll battle, the cryptic poster war in this Congress fortress has intensified, with BJP candidate and incumbent forest minister Rakesh Pathania and his son being the targets this time.
Posters calling to “Baap-Bete Ko Fatehpur Se Bhagaana Hai (Send father-son duo away from Fatehpur) have been put up by unknown people at several places in the constituency.
Some posters contained objectionable remarks against Pathania and his son Bhawani Pathania.
Pathania, a third-term MLA, was shifted to Fatehpur by BJP to buck the anti-incumbency trend, notwithstanding the resentment among local leaders.
He could not be immediately contacted for comment. However, locals call it a fallout of infighting in Fatehpur BJP as local leaders are unhappy with the party for fielding Pathania.
Former Rajya Sabha member Kripal Parmar, who opposed Pathania’s candidature from Fatehpur, has jumped into the poll fray. Former BJP MP Rajan Sushant Singh is contesting as an AAP candidate while Congress has fielded sitting legislator Bhawani Singh Pathania, son of former minister Sujan Singh Pathania.
Such posters come up against one or the other candidate in every assembly election.
Earlier this month, posters against Kripal Parmar, who was the frontrunner for the BJP ticket from Fatehpur, had come up tagging him as an outsider.
Since the Fatehpur assembly segment was carved out by merging areas of the Nurpur and Jawali assembly segments before the 2012 assembly elections, the BJP has lost three consecutive elections from here, primarily due to infighting.
Similar posters had cropped up against Parmar when he fought the 2017 assembly elections on a BJP ticket and during the 2021 by-election for the assembly segment.
Congress veteran and former minister Sujan Singh Pathania defeated BJP’s Baldev Thakur in the 2012 general assembly elections by a margin of over 7,000 votes. In that election, BJP rebel and wife of former MP Rajan Sushant contested as an independent which ultimately resulted in the defeat of the BJP.
In the 2017 elections, BJP picked up Parmar as its nominee from Fatehpur. He lost to Pathania by a narrow margin of around 1,200 votes due to a rebellion by Baldev Thakur, who contested as an independent and secured more than 13,000 votes. Rajan Sushant, who was also contesting as an independent, polled over 6,000 votes.
