Omprakash Thakur
The political life of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who started running the BJP government, which was in power for five years in the hilly but small state of Himachal Pradesh, seems to have come to an end with the announcement of BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda. Nadda cleared all questions related to Dhumal in the capital, whether it was the issue of giving ticket to Dhumal in the upcoming assembly elections or a probe into Dhumal’s defeat in 2017. Apart from this, in the matter of familyism and not giving tickets to leaders above 75 years of age, Nadda made it clear that nothing would happen. At the same time, he said that the party should let him run. Both the meaning and the message is clear that no one should teach them how to run the party and what decision they have to take.
Nadda made it clear that the upcoming assembly elections would be fought under the command of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The BJP had badly lost all the four seats in the by-elections held in the state. In Jubbal Kotkhai, even the BJP candidate’s bail was forfeited. All this happened when there is a BJP government in the state as well as at the center and the Congress did not even have a strong leader like Virbhadra Singh in the state.
Dhumal is keen to take a happy farewell from his political life. But the kind of stand that Nadda has adopted, it does not seem that anything like this will happen now. Remember that Nadda and Dhumal have a political figure of thirty-six and it was because of Dhumal that Nadda had to resign from the state cabinet and move to Delhi. Remember that it was Dhumal who ran the government for the first time in the state from 1998 to 2003 despite all the difficulties in alliance with Sukh Ram’s Himachal Vikas Congress.
Earlier, Shanta Kumar, one of the veterans of the BJP, had become the Chief Minister of Himachal twice, but his government fell after two and a half years. For the first time, Dhumal ran a coalition government, but for the second time in December 2007, he brought the BJP to power on his own with an absolute majority and during this time he destroyed many Congress strongholds. In the by-elections of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s electoral constituency Rohru, he was successful in getting Khushi Ram Balnatha to the assembly on a BJP ticket. It was a big turnaround.
It is a matter of fact that after this victory, he did not give preference to Balnatha in the government and in the 2012 elections, former MP Maheshwar Singh and many leaders rebelled against Dhumal and formed a separate party. Went. But as Leader of the Opposition, Dhumal did not allow the Congress government and the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to maintain his dominance. The result was that in December 2017, he had opened the way to bring the BJP back to power.
At the center, the pair of Amit Shah and Modi tried to end their dominance in the 2017 elections. But when he came to know ten days before the polling that if Dhumal is not taken forward, then the BJP may be left out of the formation of the government in the state. In such a situation, he was declared the face of the Chief Minister just before the election. But he lost his election and could not become the Chief Minister.
Now Nadda has given a clear message that the bleak era in the politics of the state is over. Nadda is moving ahead with the agenda that the BJP government should be formed again in the state. But the big issue is that the mistake Dhumal made in 2012 by not persuading the rebels, Nadda seems to be repeating the same mistake by angering the Dhumal camp. In such a situation, it is not looking easy if BJP can capture power again.
On the other hand, Union Minister Anurag Thakur has started a campaign to include all the big leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party in the BJP. They are running their own separate campaign from Delhi itself. In such a situation, Jairam and Anurag are seen standing as two poles in the party. Destroying Dhumal in the state and coming back to power is no less than a challenge. Of course, Nadda may have taken his revenge, but in politics, when and where the board will turn, nothing is known.
There are only a few months left now.