E-Paper
Stung by bypoll defeat, Jai Ram huddles with Mandi leaders to dissect verdict
Overconfidence, complacent cadres and failure to nullify the sympathy wave after former CM Virbhadra Singh’s demise identified as major factors behind bypoll debacle
Stung by the bypoll defeat, Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur huddled with leaders and workers of the Mandi parliamentary segment to assess the factors that led to the party’s debacle. Overconfidence, infighting, complacent cadres and the failure to nullify the sympathy wave after former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s demise were identified as the key factors which led to the BJP’s loss.
The election results had dented the Jai Ram’s image, who was the party’s face not only in the Mandi segment, but three assembly constituencies too. The Congress’ victory was stellar as its candidates won all the four seats.
Jai Ram was confident of winning on his home turf Mandi and had even coined the slogan ‘Mandi Humari Thi, Humari Hai, aur Humari Rahegi’ (Mandi was ours, is ours, and will remain ours), but it proved otherwise for the ruling party. In Mandi, its candidate Kargil war veteran Brigadier Khushal Thakur lost to Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh. The slogan smacked of regional bias, the leaders opined. Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts did not favour the BJP either.
Jai Ram tried to strike an emotional chord, besides raising the regional sentiments, but it didn’t work as Pratibha defeated Brigadier Thakur by 7,490 votes. The Congress banked on Virbhadra Singh’s sympathy, while it peddled the issue of rising inflation, unemployment and local factors. Personal attacks on Pratibha further solidified the sympathy wave in her favour.
The BJP was entirely dependent on Jai Ram to win the home turf. The Congress constantly attacked the government over lack of development and misgovernance. The ruling party was overconfident whereas the ministers and legislators failed to counter the Congress allegations in the elections.
Jai Ram had on Sunday convened a meeting of leaders at Pandoh to get their account of the election defeat. The BJP secured a lead of 21,609 from Seraj in the byelection in comparison to a massive lead of 34,000 during the previous Lok Sabha elections when Ramswaroop Sharma trounced former Union minister Sukhram’s grandson Aashray Sharma.
Sources privy to the meeting said the CM’s dependence on the coterie of a handful of local leaders led to discontent among his supporters in Seraj.
“Elections results shouldn’t be seen as the final assessment of my government. There are several other factors that led to BJP’s defeat in the byelection. The party will deeply analyse these reasons,” Jai Ram told local reporters.
“The defeat is a timely alert for the BJP and we will work harder to win the 2022 elections by overcoming our shortcomings,” he added.
As per BJP leaders, due to overconfidence, neither the leaders nor the workers mobilised the voters, which resulted in low voting percentage in the BJP strongholds. Also, a section of leaders was critical of the ‘lopsided approach’ in development works.The leaders observed that Jal Shakti minister Mahender Singh Thakur’s segment Dharampur and CM’s segment Seraj got more preference in development works over other constituencies. The leaders felt that government works were confined to the file and there was little execution on the ground.
‘I accept the blame for the bad results’
“The outcome of the bypolls was not as per the expectations. I, as the chief minister, accept the blame for the bad results,” Jai Ram said while addressing a press conference on Monday.
“I accept the verdict and acknowledge the shortcomings. The decision in the party is taken collectively,” said the CM, who spent the entire day assessing the factors for the bypoll debacle. “There are certain things that I can share with you while some I keep confined to myself,” said the visibly upset CM.
“As in the Centre and the state, we have BJP governments, there was overconfidence,” he added.
“I started evaluation from my own Seraj assembly segment. There was a lead of more than 21,000 votes. It could have been better,” he said, adding that vote percentage is different in general assembly elections and bypolls.
“One has to make efforts to mobilise voters,” Jai Ram said, and added that the government had carried out development works across the state, but could not connect with the people.
He said his party and government will work with more vigour and strengthen itself in the coming days. Jai Ram also made it clear that the bypoll verdict should not be seen as a verdict against his government.
Restore subsidy on pesticides, fungicides: Cong MLA
Newly elect Congress MLA from Jubbal-Kotkhai Rohit Thakur on Monday said the fruit growers in the state are facing economic losses due to the government’s decision to end the subsidy on essential insecticides and fungicides.
He said when scab disease had ravaged the apple crop in Himachal in 1982-83, the then Congress government started 50% subsidy on pesticides and fungicides. However, the BJP government scrapped the subsidy in 2020.
“In July, HP chief minister had announced to restore the subsidy, but no step has been taken yet. The government should immediately restore the subsidy on pesticides and fungicides and give relief to the apple growers,” he added.
