“Jairam Thakur symbolises the toughness and struggle of our people,” said Mohan Lal, sitting under the warm autumn sun in Bhagsaid, a small hill town on the banks of the gurgling Beas river. Eight kilometres upstream lies chief minister Thakur’s home village, Tandhi, ringed by alpine forests. Thakur, 58, has won five consecutive assembly elections from this area since 1998, banking on his personal connect with the people and his family history of growing apples, the driver of the local economy and a source of pride for residents.
Many here have keenly followed Thakur’s rise from an ordinary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker to the state’s top job.
“I still remember the days we used to walk to school from Tandhi in half-torn shoes . Those were very tough days...we lived hand-to-mouth. I think, he (Thakur) feels our pain,” said Lal, 58, pointing to the school building across the Beas. Thakur renovated the school in 2010 with government funds.
The CM now faces a formidable challenge -- reversing the state’s political tradition of voting out the incumbent and leading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to retain power and defeat the Congress, and the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party. His constituency of Seraj is at the core of the party’s strategy for the must-win Mandi district for the November 12 assembly election.
In 2017, the BJP swept the district -- the second-largest after Kangra -- and won all 10 seats. “There was a buzz that Thakur could become CM during the campaign, the first from Mandi, and that galvanised voters,” said Purashottam Thakur, a resident of the picturesque Jhanjheli village, popularly known as a gateway to Kullu and Manali. This time, the BJP is hoping to repeat the feat. “There has been unprecedented development under Thakur saheb,” said Diwan Chand, a local BJP leader.
{{/usCountry}}In 2017, the BJP swept the district -- the second-largest after Kangra -- and won all 10 seats. “There was a buzz that Thakur could become CM during the campaign, the first from Mandi, and that galvanised voters,” said Purashottam Thakur, a resident of the picturesque Jhanjheli village, popularly known as a gateway to Kullu and Manali. This time, the BJP is hoping to repeat the feat. “There has been unprecedented development under Thakur saheb,” said Diwan Chand, a local BJP leader.
{{/usCountry}}With about 84,000 voters, Seraj was an economically backward region till the 1990s -- it has poor road connectivity, and potato and peas were the main crops. With better roads, the local economy grew and many people moved to growing apples, a ₹6,000 crore industry in the state. Former Union telecom minister and Congress leader Sukh Ram was considered the tallest leader from the district but could never become CM. In September 1996, ₹3.6 crore stashed in 22 suitcases was found at Sukh Ram’s house in Mandi, torpedoing his political career.
His son and political heir, state minister Anil Sharma, is now with the BJP and contesting to retain his Mandi seat. As Ram’s clout diminished in the 1990s, Thakur started pressing his advantage, especially after becoming state panchayati raj minister in 2007.
“He commissioned developmental projects...Today, he has connected almost every village with a road and works for the remaining villages are going on,” said Diwan Chand. Roads are a key electoral issue because they reduce transportation cost of goods by nearly a tenth in the hills. Of the 3,338 villages in the district, around 65% were connected by roads in 2021, compared to 46% in 2014, state planning department data showed.
In Tandhi,locals credit Thakur’s humble nature and family background for his success. His old stone-and-wood ancestral house is perched on a hill top, next to a new brick-and-cement house. His 80-year-old mother and three brothers still live there.
The BJP is aware that Mandi has more women (50.31% of the district population) than men and is reaching out to them. In Seraj, the government has built four colleges to ensure women can access education near their homes. “We are also providing skill training to women,” said Karan Nanda, a state BJP leader. In Jhanjheli, college student Devanti Thakur said the government provided good education facilities but wondered about her job prospects -- a common refrain across the state.
Some voters say repeating the 2017 sweep may be tough for the BJP. “All the development happened in Seraj and very little elsewhere. You can make it out by just looking at the quality of roads. It will be tough for them to repeat 2017,” said Naveen Sharma, a voter in the neighbouring Nachan assembly seat.
Chet Ram Thakur, the Congress candidate from Seraj, admitted that development was done in the district but credited former CM and Congress leader Virbhadra Singh. “There is lot of resentment among people for not getting jobs and women are angry about high inflation. The BJP will have to bear the cost for its wrong policies,” he said.
Political analyst Balbir Sharma said Thakur developed Seraj, and it will have a spillover in neighbouring constituencies. “But having a CM from Mandi may not have impact the entire district as many local factors are playing out,” he said.