Winning back rebels to be a Herculean task

Though the official candidates of both the BJP and the Congress have filed nominations on party tickets, bigger challenges are in store for them. They have to contend with the vagaries of weather and tough terrains in the hills to reach out to the voters in the short time left to them. Arvind Moudgil reports.

Though the official candidates of both the BJP and the Congress have filed nominations on party tickets, bigger challenges are in store for them.

They have to contend with the vagaries of weather and tough terrains in the hills to reach out to the voters in the short time left to them. But above all, they have to bring round the rebels by January 16 and go in for a hectic damage control exercise to win back estranged party workers who are conspicuous by their absence in public meetings these days.

Brij Mohan Kotwal, sitting MLA from Srinagar, Rajkumar Pori and Mukesh Kohli, disaapointed aspirants of the party ticket from the reserved seat of Pauri were not seen in the recent public meeting held in Pauri in the presence of star BJP campaigners, ex-CM Bhagat Singh Koshyari and state BJP president Bishan Singh Chufal.

The coming three days are very crucial for both the BJP and the Congress because it would not augur well for them if the rebels do not relent and withdraw their nominations.

Many bigwigs from both the parties are facing such rebellions in the party cadre which is unprecedented in scale this time. With the weather taking a sunny turn, the candidates have left for the interiors of their constituencies, yet a team is left behind to placate the rebels and annoyed partymen and bring them back to the partyfold.