E-Paper
BJP swap seats of Ravinder Ravi, Ramesh Dhawala, leave MLA Hoshyar in cold
Ravinder Singh Ravi, a staunch loyalist of Prem Kumar Dhumal, will fight from Jwalamukhi while sitting legislator Ramesh Dhawala will contest from Dehra in place of sitting MLA Hoshyar Singh
The ruling BJP on Thursday afternoon released the second list of candidates for the remaining six seats in Himachal Pradesh, ending the suspense on Dehra and Jwalamukhi in the politically significant Kangra district.
With this, the party has announced all 68 seats for the November 12 assembly polls, the results of which will be declared on December 8.
After much deliberation, the BJP has swapped the seats of senior leaders Ravinder Singh Ravi and Ramesh Dhawala. Ravi, an ex-minister and staunch loyalist of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, will fight from Jawalamukhi while sitting legislator Dhawala has been shifted to Dehra.
Dhawala won the 2017 elections from Jawalamukhi, while Ravi lost to the independent MLA Hoshyar Singh.
Singh, whom the BJP had inducted in June, much to the dismay of Ravi and the block BJP, has been denied a ticket preventing a revolt by the former minister.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur was keen on fielding Hoshyar Singh from Dehra but Dhumal and Union minister Anurag Singh Thakur were against any such move. Dhumal had called on national party chief Jagat Parkash Nadda.
It was highly likely that Ravi if denied a ticket, would have joined Congress and contested from Sulah against the sitting assembly speaker Vipin Singh Parmar.
However, the BJP managed to handle the situation by swapping the seats of the two leaders.
Meanwhile, from Haroli’s seat of Una, BJP has reposed faith in Prof Ram Kumar, who would be up against the leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri for the third time.
Prof Kumar lost elections from Haroli in 2017 and 2012. The constituency was called Santokhgarh before the delimitation exercise. Agnihotri has won four consecutive elections from this Congress citadel.
Scion of the Kullu Royal Family, Maheshwar Singh would be trying his luck again from the Kullu assembly constituency. The former MP had lost the 2017 election from Kullu to Congress’ Sunder Singh Thakur. He won the election from this seat in 2012 as the head of Himachal Lokhit Party, a splinter group he floated after parting ways with the BJP. Earlier, he had contested from Banjar from where he won two elections in 1977 and 1982. He also remained MP from Mandi parliamentary seat in 1989, 1998 and 1999.
From Barsar, the party has fielded a fresh face, a woman leader Maya Sharma. The party has picked up a total of six women candidates for the upcoming election. From Rampur’s (SC) seat also the party nominated a young leader Kaul Singh Negi.
