Eight out of ten ministers of BJP lost in HP and Priyanka Gandhi’s charisma did work in the himalayan state this time

The saffron party’s shameful drubbing in Himachal Pradesh has resulted in eight out of ten ministers losing their seats with only two ministers winning. The eight ministers who lost are Suresh Bharadwaj, Ram Lal Markanda, Virendra Kanwar, Govind Singh Thakur, Rakesh Pathania, Dr.Rajiv Saijal, Sarveen Choudhary, and Rajendra Garg.

The outgoing chief minister Jairam Thakur and two ministers Vikram Thakur and Sukhram Choudhary won the elections.

A small state though with only 68 lawmakers’ strength with JP Nadda, the party’s national chief also from Himachal Pradesh, it’s indeed a matter of immense worry for him as his party lost badly, not repeating as it returned to pow er in Uttarakhand breaking the myth of ruling party losing after every five years.

The BJP which was reduced to 25 seats from last time’s tally of 44 lawmakers with Congress winning on 40 seats in HP, there wasn’t any religious polarisation in the state this time whereas in the neighbouring state Uttarakhand, the alleged Muslim university issue of Congress if it comes to power and Uniform Civil Code factor did worked in favour of BJP, but not in Himachal Pradesh.

This clearly indicates that the learned n enlightened voters of Himachal Pradesh preferred change while punishing the saffron party government for not delivering adequately and on Old Pension Scheme’s revival as assured by Congress as well as plight of apple growers, including assurance of Congress for giving 5 lakh jobs in five years and Rs 1500 monthly dole to each n every women etc.

If we compare the election campaigning of Uttarakhand with Himachal Pradesh – this time prime minister Narendra Modi, home minister n strategist Amit Shah and national party chief J. P. Nadda did not show any interest in Himachal Pradesh with Gujarat being their first and only foremost priority.

The Arvind Kejrival’s repeated visits in Gujarat compelled PM Modi and his entourage to be busy in Gujarat where he addressed 31 public meetings and several massive road shows whereas in tiny Uttarakhand too PM Modi held five big public meetings few months, ago, announced huge developmental projects worth thousands of crores and his ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and several CMs assuring to implement uniform civil code in Uttarakhand including accusing Congress for building a Muslim university if it comes to power.

This clicked and Hindu votes got polarised widely with BJP breaking the myth of ruling party losing after every five years thus coming to power again for the second time in a row during the last twenty two years.

But this didn’t clicked in Himachal Pradesh despite announcement for implementing UCC, Ram Temple issue etc as not only did PM held much meetings except one, nor Amit Shah addressed much meetings as he did in UK earlier, nor the Party national chief J. P. Nadda showered much interest including the former CM Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur being much active except holding few meetings in Hamirpur. There is a political enmity between former CM Dhumal and Anuragh Thakur camp and J. P. Nadda and Jairam Thakur camp with latter sidelining them in state politics.

And this led to BJP doing badly in the state with saffron party not being able to bring much seats from Hamirpur as well as in J. P. Nadda’s constituency too, though the present CM Jairam Thakur got 10 seats out of 11 in his district.

Just see the contrast in terms of Delhi as well.

In Delhi the BJP has deployed about 17 union ministers, seven CMs and about hundred MPs but in Himachal Pradesh there was none as compared to Delhi. This unambiguously means that the BJP top leadership was definitely afraid of AAP n its charismatic chief Arvind Kejrival who’d won in Delhi municipal elections securing134 seats.

However, same was the condition from the side of Congress as only few leaders like Priyanka Gandhi, Rajiv Shukla, Bhupinder Singh Hooda n Jai Ram Ramesh were star campaigners – campaigning for the party.

However, the Congress state leaders Pratibha Singh, MP, Sukhjinder Singh Sukhu, several times MLA, Mukesh Agnihotri, MLA etc were actively involved in party’s campaigning.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s charisma did worked in Himachal Pradesh single handedly as, Rahul Gandhi could not join her due to his being engaged in Bharat Jodo Yatra and in Gujarat during its last leg of campaigning.

After BJP’s massive defeat it had become absolutely clear that PM Modi’s charisma didn’t worked in Himachal Pradesh as it worked in Uttarakhand repeating for the second time, few months ago n in Gujarat this time giving it a historic win for the seventh consecutive term.

Now BJP blames to the infighting and unfair distribution of tickets etc in HP for its defeat as in 21 assembly constituencies there were hostlities ( rebellion) by the sitting lawmakers whose tickets were cut and contested as ” Baagi”, hostile candidates invading into BJPs committed vote bank leading to the victory of Congress candidates.

However, four factors did played an important role in Congress’s victory. The first being end to the new pension scheme by reintroducing the Old Pension Scheme that resulted in entire government employees ( working n retired) voting for Congress party apart from the orchard owners who had their demands to be resolved and assured by Congress party. The promise for five lakh jobs in five years also paid dividends to Congress party including a monthly emolument of Rs 1500 to every women above eighteen years impressed women voters leading to 6% increase in women voting in HP compared to men voters. Apart from these the Agniveer scheme of employment in Defence Forces also went against BJP as youths and their parents in Himachal Pradesh were badly against it.