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BJP mulls revamping organisational structure in Himachal
The BJP won 25 of the total 68 seats in the assembly elections. Apart from anti-incumbency, the party suffered electoral losses due to factional feuds. So BJP is mulling revamping organisational structure in Himachal Pradesh
After the debacle in assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is mulling major changes in its organisational structure as the party begins preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The party will change block presidents in 30 assembly segments while major changes are expected in the state unit.
The BJP won 25 of the total 68 seats in the assembly elections. Apart from anti-incumbency, the party suffered electoral losses due to factional feuds. The party faced a rebellion in 21 seats. The party’s core group comprising the top brass met last month in Una to dissect the reasons for the defeat. The group discussed the factors that led to the defeat in detail. BJP leaders are divided over the fate of leaders who worked against official candidates. A section in the party strongly believes that top-rung leaders should work towards uniting the disgruntled leaders as they believe that a factional feud can again harm the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP ran a high-decibel campaign in Himachal pitching a battery of star campaigners led by party’s national president JP Nadda in his home state. The party focused more on national issues, including the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The party in its manifestoes promised to introduce Uniform Civil Code, even though the state has a very small non-Hindu population. These promises didn’t help the party to garner support, the leaders had opined.
The BJP is likely to revamp its party units in 30 blocks particularly where the party‘s nominees were defeated in the assembly elections or it faced factional feuds, including Theogh, Kasumpti, Shimla rural, Jubbal- Kotkhai, Rampur, Bilaspur, Kinnaur, Ani, Kullu, Bharmaur, Chamba, Arki, Nalagarh, Renuka, Bhoranj, Sujanpur, Badsar, Nurpur, Fatehpur, Jawali, Dehra, Jawalamukhi, Kangra, Dharamshala, Palampur, Jogindernagar, Dharampur and Sarkhagahat.
“The party will make necessary changes in an organisational structure where it’s required. The party already initiated action against those who damaged the its prospects amid the elections and after the results. More action could follow,” said state party chief Suresh Kashyap, adding that the party is gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2019 elections, the BJP won all the Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh with a record margin.
BJP’s Kishan Kapoor won the Kangra seat by a margin of 4.77 lakh votes while in Hamirpur Anurag Thakur registered a victory by over 3.99 lakh votes. Ram Swaroop Sharma won from Mandi by a margin of 4.05 lakh votes and Suresh Kashyap in Shimla took a lead of 3.27 lakh.
The saffron party had registered a lead in all the 68 assembly constituencies comprising four parliament segments. It polled 69% vote share in Himachal, which is the highest in the country, in this Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP will now increase its focus in the politically significant Kangra district which has a total of 15 assembly segments. The BJP won only four seats while one of its rebels, Hoshyar Singh won the Dehra seat. The name of former speaker Bipin Singh Parmar, who won the Sulah seat, was doing the rounds for the Leader of the Opposition, but the party chose former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur as the Leader of the Opposition. Parmar’s name is also doing the rounds for the next party chief along with Rajya Sabha member Indu Goswami. Other names include former BJP chief and Una MLA Satpal Singh Satti, Rajya Sabha member Sikander Kumar and Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma.
Congress after winning 10 seats could not maintain the regional balance in the cabinet formation. People in Kangra were left in disbelief after the electorally significant district was “grossly ignored” in cabinet expansion by chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Kangra, where Congress won 10 out of a total of 15 assembly seats which eventually paved the way for the grand old party’s return to power in the hill state, had to settle with one ministerial berth. The BJP is hoping that the resentment in Kangra against the Congress could help solidify its vote bank in the Lok Sabha elections. Senior leader Chander Kumar is the only MLA from Kangra district to be inducted into the cabinet. Apart from Kumar, two MLAs from the district, Ashish Butail and Kishori Lal, have been made chief parliamentary secretaries.
