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Himachal apple growers upset BJP’s applecart in Jubbal-Kotkhai
Jubbal-Kotkhai bypoll verdict a vote against apple market crash, may force ruling party to rethink on policies in the belt
The apple-growing belt of Himachal Pradesh has been the epicentre of the hill state’s politics for decades and Tuesday’s byelection verdict that went against the ruling BJP is being seen as a vote against the crash in apple rates this season.
Also read: Bypoll results: What they reveal, what they don’t
Himachal Pradesh’s apple belt is spread over Shimla, Kinnaur and Kullu besides parts of Mandi and Sirmaur districts, comprising 16 assembly segments. The state’s ₹6,000-crore apple economy has 1.75 lakh families dependent on it.
The problems of apple growers were at the centrestage of the campaign in Jubbal-Kotkhai, the home turf of two former chief ministers Thakur Ram Lal and Virbhadra Singh, during this byelection. All three candidates, namely Rohit Thakur of the Congress, Neelam Saraik of the BJP and Chetan Bragta, a BJP rebel-turned-Independent, wove their campaign around the apple economy.
The apple growers were upset with the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government for the way it handled the market crash this time. State horticulture minister Mahendra Singh Thakur and his colleague Suresh Bhardwaj, who was the BJP campaign in-charge of Jubbal-Kotkhai, infuriated the growers with their statements over the crash. It’s no surprise that the BJP candidate had to forfeit her deposit on Tuesday.
Anger boiled over, says Rohit Thakur of Congress
“There has been anger among apple growers this time. The BJP government made no effort to give them relief despite adverse weather conditions that hit their crop. They have been ignored for the past three years,” said Congress candidate Rohit Thakur, who wrested the Jubbal-Kotkhai seat from the BJP.
“I have 10 months (before the assembly elections). I will try to do whatever is possible. The road conditions are bad in this belt,” he said.
Barring Mahender Singh Thakur, the incumbent horticulture minister who belongs to the non-apple growing area of Dharampur, the government has always appointed a horticulture minister from the core apple-growing belt, which has produced some of the foremost leaders of the state, including two former chief ministers Virbhadra Singh and Ram Lal Thakur, besides Vidya Stokes and Satyawati Parmar, the wife of former chief minister Yashwant Parmar. Satyawati was state Congress chief from 1964-69 and she was a Rajya Sabha member. JBL Khachi was another tall leader.
