BJP MPs back in constituencies tomorrow as PM Modi focuses on Himachal Pradesh

Seized of the Himachal election challenge ahead, PM Modi is expected to make a major announcement from Shimla on May 31 to mark eight years of his government even as he galvanizes workers and public support for the BJP.

Published on: May 29, 2022, 10:40:35 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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To mark the eighth anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, all members of Parliament including Cabinet ministers have been asked to go back to their respective constituencies for the next two days and participate in public functions organized by the BJP. The Rajya Sabha MPs have been designated a particular constituency to visit in the run up to May 31.

PM Narendra Modi will address a public rally on Shimla Ridge on May 31 to mark completion of eight years of his government.

While all the Cabinet Ministers and BJP MPs will be present in their respective constituencies on May 30, the day Narendra Modi was sworn in the second time, they will also sit with the public to hear the PM address the rally at Shimla Ridge on May 31. The ridge symbolically also separates the Indus and Ganges River system.

It is understood that PM Modi is expected to make a major announcement from the Shimla Ridge, apart from giving out the report card of his government since 2014, with the direct benefit transfer scheme, as well as vaccine delivery, being the highlight. However, the PM, by holding a rally in Shimla, is bringing the party focus on the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections later this year and energizing the workers. The incumbent chief minister Jairam Thakur faces a stiff electoral challenge from Congress and a resurgent AAP after the party swept neighbouring Punjab in March 2022.

Given that the BJP recently lost the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and three Assembly seats recently, PM Modi has decided to galvanize the party in Himachal Pradesh and will be spending two nights in Dharamshala in Kangra district next month. While PM Modi will be addressing all India chief secretaries' meeting on June 17 in Dharmshala, he will use this opportunity to garner public support in a region where the BJP has traditionally faced an electoral challenge.

Although BJP President J P Nadda belongs to Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, and information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur is a three-time MP from Hamirpur, the top leadership of the party has already dispatched one of its national vice presidents to organize the party workers on the ground in the hill state. The BJP knows that Congress still has significant electoral support in Himachal and any let-up in the campaign could prove costly in the long run with PM Modi himself spending a long time in the state during his organization days.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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