Unceremonious departure of BJP veteran : Tears burst out from Union Minister’s eye 

The unceremonious departure of BJP veterans from the public life reflected in sombre modes as while addressing a party election meeting tears burst out from the eye of Union Minister Anurag Thakur in the Sujanpur Assembly segment. He was addressing party workers after gap of five years. Thakur was addressing party workers at Sujanpur yesterday after party candidate who replaced Dhumal, Capt. Ranjeet Singh filed nomination.

Thakur said that people of Hamirpur district elected him four times as member of Parliament and his father remained Chief Minister twice by the blessing of the people of Sujanpur and Hmairpur but tears burst out of his his for a few seconds.

Number of loyalists belonging to Dhumal including Gulab Singh Thakur and Col Inder Singh were not given tickets by the party. BJP did not offer a ticket to Dhumal who had lost to Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur by margin of 2000 votes in 2017 assembly also sought party probe on the line of Uttrakhand Pushkar Dhami. Dhumal has demanded the probe against the conspiracy hatched on him in Sujanpur 2017.

BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda denied such a probe which shows  that Dhumal could not enjoy similar treatment from central party leadership. Dhumal who stated recently that he is ready to canvas where party demands. However, BJP has put Dhumal in ninth position as party star campaigner. There are reports that Dhumal did not return to Hamirpur from Delhi after attending the party central parliamentary board ticket distribution meeting and rushed to Jalandhar in Punjab.  Dhumal has stated that he would join the party campaign if it would be necessary but his departure from the state in high time indicates that he must have been instructed by the party to keep away from the scene despite he figured among the star campaigner.

During the bye election too, BJP did not use the services of Dhumal and it lost four seats including Mandi Parliamentary. However BJP stated that Mandi LS seats and bye election was lost owing to the sympathy wave owing to the demise of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.  Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and party president figures on the seventh and eighth possession.

Another BJP stalwart Shanta Kumar who had renounced the electoral politics in 2019 Lok Sabha election also figures on the tenth position among the star campaigner. Anurag Thakur who is number two in the Modi government and party after Nadda figured on 14 position in the star list.

Party also decided to use the services of Prime minister, home minister, Defence minister BJP president Nitin Gadkari and UP chief Minister Yogi Adityaanath, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Uttrakand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami.

BJP had to deploy former party incharge Mangal Panday on October 19 in the state to control the massive rebellion among the party aspirants of tickets however his name was also figured in the Star campaigner list issued by party to Election commission on Oct 21. Party facing rebels in most of the assembly decided to control the damage. Congress rebels Harsh Mahajan and MLA  Pawan Kajal  who is  sitting MLA from Kangra figures among the star campaigner list along with Rajiv Bindal, Mahendra Singh Thakur party MLA from Nahan and Dharampur. Others are party Member of Parliament Kishan Kapoor, Indu Goswami and Sikander Kumar.

The state would go to poll on November 12 in a single phase election so far around 250 candidates filed nomination including 14 BJP rebels and five Congress rebels.