Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former minister Ramesh Dhawala has put his own party and the government in Himachal Pradesh in the dock over the humiliating defeat in the recently held bypoll.
The BJP had all four seats, including the Mandi parliamentary constituency and Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly segments, in the October 30 byelections from Himachal Pradesh.
Speaking to the media at Surani in Kangra district, the Jawalamukhi MLA said the lack of coordination between the government and the organisation was the primary reason behind the party’s defeat in the bypolls.
“If the organization ignores senior leaders and workers this is bound to happen,” he said. Bringing new people forward in the organisation was a good thing, but the consequences will be disastrous if the old guard is sidelined, he claimed.
“If the organisation bypasses the old workers and forms parallel organisations at many places, it demoralises the cadre who then sit at home instead of working in the field. Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur is a hardworking and honest man, but it is really humiliating to lose all the four seats despite record development works taking place in the state,” he added.
No excuse is sufficient to justify the defeat and it is the time to introspect, Dhawala said. “If the real reasons for the defeat are not debated, then the road to the mission repeat in the 2022 assembly elections would be even worse,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}No excuse is sufficient to justify the defeat and it is the time to introspect, Dhawala said. “If the real reasons for the defeat are not debated, then the road to the mission repeat in the 2022 assembly elections would be even worse,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Dhawala said if the party learns from its mistakes and work accordingly, then the party will repeat the government in the next elections.
It is not the first time that Dhawala has spoken against the functioning of the organisation. He has been locking horns with state general secretary (organisation) Pawan Rana for long.
During a meeting of Kangra legislators with CM Jai Ram Thakur last year, Dhawala had openly expressed displeasure over interference by Rana in his constituency. Later, Dhawala and his supporters had lashed out at party over the appointments made in Jawalamukhi block unit without consulting the MLA and the local leaders.