Himachal Pradesh elections: No gains for BJP in Hattee dominated Sirmaur

The BJP has lost Renukaji and Shillai seats to the Congress even as it had fulfilled the demand of tribal tag to the community, an issue simmering since 1967

Caste polarisation and focused campaign by the Congress, coupled with other local factors, have again dashed the hopes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to make inroads into the grand-old party’s bastion of trans-giri areas in Sirmaur district with three lakh Hattees.

BJP leaders themselves admitted that confusion surrounding the notification and opposition of the SCs and OBCs, who are in considerable number in Renukaji and Shillai, are some of the reasons, which led to their poll debacle. (HT File Photo)

The BJP has lost Renukaji and Shillai seats to the Congress even as it had fulfilled the demand of tribal tag to the community, an issue simmering since 1967. On other two seats with strong community presence in the district -- Pachhad and Paonta Sahib -- the BJP appears to have won largely due to rebel candidates in the Congress.

Former speaker from the Congress, Gangu Ram Musafir, got 13,187 votes, whereas margin between BJP’s Reena Kashyap and Congress’ Dayal Pyari on the seat was merely 3,857 votes in Pachhad.

In Paonta Sahib, Congress rebel Manish Thakur polled 5,090 votes while BJP’s Sukh Ram won by 8,596 votes. Not only this, former BJP president Rajeev Bindal lost the Nahan seat to Ajay Solanki of the Congress by 1,639 votes. Nahan is also the district headquarters and has significant presence of the community.

It was in September that the Centre had approved tribal status to Hattee community largely settled across around 150 panchayats in trans-giri areas under four assembly constituencies. There are 33 panchayats and one nagar panchayat in Pachhad, 44 panchayats in Renukaji, 58 in Shillai and 16 in Paonta Sahib.

BJP’s Shillai candidate Baldev Tomar, who is considered the catalyst that helped in getting the tribal status for the community, lost to Congress’ sitting MLA Harshwardhan Chauhan by 382 votes, while Narain Singh of the BJP lost to sitting legislator Vinay Kumar with 860 votes in Renukaji.

“The Congress took advantage of no clear definition of who all constitute the Hattees. The demand was to declare the areas as tribal, but the tag was given to the community. Opposition by the Scheduled Castes (SCs) to the tribal status not only dented the BJP’s prospects in Sirmaur, but at other places too. Brahmins, majority of whom are in the OBC category, saw themselves as the victims of this decision as well,” said PR Bhardwaj, a professor of political science at Dr YS Parmar Government Post Graduate College in Nahan. “The Congress focused its campaign around this confusion. The decision was dubbed as the benefit to those at whose hands SCs are facing discrimination,” he added.

As per the 2011 census, total population of the district is 5.29 lakh, including 1.6 lakh SCs mainly concentrated in Pachhad and Renukaji, where their percentage may go up to 50%. Hattees initially constituted nearly three lakh of the population. In the run-up to elections, SCs got together and held mega rallies not only in Sirmaur but also at other places over dilution of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and reservation. It forced the government to exclude 90,000 SCs living in these panchayats from the Hattee community and the Union cabinet approved to declare 1.6 lakh population of Hattees as tribal. They mainly belong to upper castes, mostly Brahmins and Khash-Kanet, who are locally referred as Rajputs. As per the 2011 census, 87,685 people are Khash-Kanets, while 33,752 are Brahmins.

“Brahmins are OBCs as per the state list. They enjoy 27% reservation in the state, whereas ST quota would be 7%. This helped in mobilising them along with SCs,” said a Congress leader from the area, adding that 12 sections of SCs had to be deleted from Hattees’ list.

“Now, only two upper castes are benefiting. There are fears of dilution of reservation among Brahmins,” said another leader from the area, explaining how it led to the confusion.

BJP leaders themselves admitted that confusion surrounding the notification and opposition of the SCs and OBCs, who are in considerable number in Renukaji and Shillai, are some of the reasons, which led to their poll debacle. As per them, even in Nahan segment, there are 6,000-odd Gujjar voters, who enjoy tribal status and were against similar tag to the trans-giri people. They also could have voted against BJP en masse, he added.

Bhanjas failed to deliver: Hattee leaders

The Hattee leaders, who had openly supported the BJP, termed the verdict unfortunate. “It was our promise to chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, which we could not keep,” said Ami Chand Kamal, head of the central Hattee committee.

He also admitted that caste polarisation and negative campaign by the Congress led to BJP’s debacle.

“It was executed so meticulously by the Congress that even campaigning Hattee leaders were asked to show the notification first and then seek votes,” said another leader.

A community member, who wished not to named, said, “Bhanjas (sister’s sons) failed the mama (maternal uncle), who fulfilled our demand pending for five decades.”

In Sirmaur, the term ‘mama’ was coined by some teachers from the area during protests for Jai Ram Thakur in the run-up to polls. Later in rallies, Jai Ram also used the term often, saying, “Mama has delivered. Now it is the time for the bhanjas.”