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BJP’s Satpal Satti front-runner for Leader of Opposition in Himachal
The BJP had won 25 of 68 seats in the recently concluded assembly elections, while the Congress stormed to victory after bagging 40 seats.
The BJP, which has been relegated to the role of Opposition after failing to repeat its government in the hill state, is likely to choose four-time legislator Satpal Singh Satti as leader of its legislature party.
A person privy to the matter said that while the names of former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and former speaker Vipin Singh Parmar were being considered for the post, Satti was likely to be made leader of the party in the assembly and leader of opposition.
The BJP had won 25 of 68 seats in the recently concluded assembly elections, while the Congress stormed to victory after bagging 40 seats.
“The party will appoint observers after meeting the legislators, after which central leaders will take a call,”said the party’s general secretary and first-time MLA from Bilaspur, Trilok Jamwal.
Satti, who won from the Una constituency, has been the BJP state president for seven long years, and holds the distinction of being the state units longest serving chief. It was under his leadership that BJP had won the 2017 Assembly and 2019 parliamentary elections. Satti, however, lost the election from Una in 2017 to Congress’ Satpal Singh Raizada, after consecutively winning in 2003, 2007, and 2012.
The leader of the legislature party will be chosen on the basis of the party’s internal report on the poll debacle, the person cited above, said. Reportedly, the report squarely blames poor governances for the defeat, although former CM Jai Ram Thakur won with a record margin of 38,183 votes, polling 54% of the total valid votes.
The report also observed that there was widespread resentment among the party cadres and attributed the loss to internal strife. As per the report, the Congress’ key promise of implementing the Old Pension scheme did not lead to the party’s loss as government employees voted for the saffron party, despite the Congress’ guarantee.
It, however, highlighted the party’s poor performance in Hamirpur, a segment from where union minister Anurag Thakur is a Lok Sabha member and BJP chief JP Nadda hail. The party won only in four of 17 assembly segments in Hamirpur. BJP secured 41.6% votes in Hamirpur parliamentary segment.
The party’s performance was also dismal in the Kangra parliamentary seat where it won only five seats of 17 and secured 45.46 % votes. It registered its worst drubbing in the Shimla parliamentary segment where it could only win 3 seats. It is believed that resentment among apple growers was responsible for the party’s defeat.
The party will also initiate the process to elect a new president in January as the term of the incumbent chief Suresh Kashyap, who is also a Lok Sabha member from Shimla, ends on December 31. Indu Goswami, a Rajya Sabha member, Sikander Kumar another Rajya Sabha member, party general secretaries Trilok Jamwal, an MLA from Bilaspur and confidante of Nadda, Sunder Nagar MLA Rakesh Jamwal, a confidante of Jai Ram Thakur and Naina Devi legislator Randhir Sharma are being considered for the post.
