Kangra, which figures as Trigarta kingdom in the Hindu epic Mahabharata and has the distinction of tilting political scales ever since it was merged in Himachal Pradesh in 1966, has again lived up to the tradition of voting out the ruling party.
The population-wise largest district sends 15 legislators to the 68-member house. The popular maxim is that road to Shimla goes through Kangra.
The Congress, which could win only three seats in Kangra in the 2017 assembly elections, won 10 seats in this assembly election while BJP was reduced to four seats with two of the ministers from the district biting the dust. One seat went to the independent.
Both Congress and BJP had aggressively campaigned in Kangra which holds the key to the formation of government in the state.
Read: Himachal Pradesh Election Results 2022 Live Updates
While the BJP made nationalism, Ram Mandir and abrogation of Article 370 its main poll planks, the Congress campaign was centred on Old Pension Scheme (OPS), Agnipath, unemployment and inflation.
The BJP failed to gauge the simmering public anger in Kangra and its ticket distribution can also be blamed for the humiliating defeat in the district, while Congress capitalized on the anti-incumbency.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP failed to gauge the simmering public anger in Kangra and its ticket distribution can also be blamed for the humiliating defeat in the district, while Congress capitalized on the anti-incumbency.
{{/usCountry}}Only incumbent industry minister Bikram Singh Thakur managed to retain his seat Jaswan-Pragpur. Forest minister Rakesh Pathania lost from Fatehpur, while Sarveen Chaudhary, the only woman minister in the Jai Ram Thakur cabinet, lost from Shahpur.
This election was very important for Pathania, whom the party shifted from his home-turf Nurpur to Fatehpur, and the defeat could bring his political career to a premature end as his arch-rival Ranbir Singh Nikka won from Nurpur by a huge margin of over 17,000 votes.
ALSO READ: With 80% vote count so far, Congress takes lead over BJP in Himachal
Pathania, who lost to the Congress’ Bhawani Singh Pathania, was locked in a quadrilateral contest with former BJP Rajya Sabha member Kirpal Singh Parmar in the fray as an independent. Former BJP MP Rajan Sushant was also contesting from Fatehpur as an AAP candidate.
Sarveen Chaudhary lost the election from the Shahpur assembly segment to Congress’ Kewal Singh Pathania despite the former minister Vijai Singh Mankotia joining the BJP just ahead of the November 12 assembly elections.
Industry Minister Bikram Singh defeated Congress Surinder Singh Mankotia from Jaswan-Pragpur by a narrow margin. Hoshyar Singh, who had joined the BJP before the assembly election but was dumped by the party due to opposition from Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur’s camp retained his seat winning against Congress’ Dr Rajesh Sharma, while former BJP minister Ramesh Dhawala finished third.
Among other Congress candidates who won the elections are former ministers Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala and Chander Kumar from Jawali, Sanjay Rattan from Jawalamukhi, Yadvinder Goma from Jaisinghpur, Ashish Butail from Palampur, Kishori Lal from Baijnath, RS Bali from Nagrota and Malender Rajan from Indora.
Key BJP leaders who retained their seats are Speaker of the outgoing assembly Vipin Singh Parmar who won from Sullah, and Pawan Kajal from Kangra. Kajal, who won as a Congress candidate in 2017, had joined BJP about three months before the elections.
Nowhere has the issue of OPS and Agnipath been more damaging to the BJP than Kangra district and other parts of lower Himachal, including Una and Hamirpur, said political science teacher Priyabhishek Sharma.
“Kangra was feeling neglected in the developmental projects including highways and airport expansion. Add to it the arrogance of some BJP ministers. The ruling party also failed to address real issues like unemployment and inflation,” Sharma added.