Chandigarh: The BJP on Saturday announced the candidates for all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh. The party has decided to replace its sitting MPs on Kangra and Shimla seats, but has retained its MPs on Hamirpur and Mandi seats.
While Anurag Thakur will contest for the fourth consecutive time from Hamirpur, Mandi lawmaker Ram Swaroop Sharma will fight the polls for the second time.
In Kangra, the outgoing MP Shanta Kumar had already made his intent of not contesting the elections clear. The veteran leader seems to have lost out on both the fronts as the BJP election panel has decided to field Kishan Kapoor, the food and civil supplies minister, who has close ties with former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as Kumar’s be`te noire.
Reports suggest that Kumar was batting for Vipin Parmar, the state health minister and his protégé from the Lok Sabha constituency which has held the key to government formation in the state. The BJP command chose otherwise.
Kapoor is a leader of the Gaddis tribe, a 3.5 lakh-strong shepherd community. His selection can also be seen in the light of recent disgruntlement in the community against Kumar who had sparked a row with his comments that ‘the elections were for the Lok Sabha and not for a specific community’. The Gaddi leaders were up in arms against Kumar. Another Gaddi leader in fray for the ticket was Trilok Kapoor, the national vice-president of the BJP’s tribal morcha.
In the reserved constituency of Shimla, sitting MP Virender Kashyap has been replaced by Pachhad MLA Suresh Kumar Kashyap. Virender Kashyap, a two-time MP from Shimla, lost the ticket owing to the burgeoning anti-incumbency against him. 46-year-old Suresh has the advantage of being an ex-serviceman. This may help attract his counterparts in the constituency which is traditionally a Congress bastion but has elected a BJP MP for the past two terms. Shimla Mayor Kusum Sadret, too, had thrown her hat in the ring for the ticket.
The BJP was faced with dilemma in Mandi as sitting MP Sharma too faced anti-incumbency. However, since the BJP had a terrific run during the 2017 Assembly elections from Mandi, winning 9 out of 10 seats, the Mandi seat has transformed into BJP’s bastion. Chief Minster Jairam Thakur also hails from Mandi. Thakur had extensively toured the state before the Election Code of Conduct was implemented.
The BJP preferred to stick with Sharma, probably due to his RSS roots. He is often referred to a Sudama for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sharma was fielded from Mandi in 2014 after Jairam Thakur refused to contest the polls.
Sharma had a tough fight from Kargil war hero Brigadier Kushal Thakur for the party ticket. Former union telecom minister Sukh Ram was also vying for a ticket for his grandson Ashray Sharma this time. Ashray’s father Anil Sharma is presently the Minister of Power in Himachal Pradesh and had switched loyalties to the BJP from the Congress in 2017.
The Hamirpur parliamentary seat is the safest for the BJP in the state with the party again betting on three-time MP Anurag Thakur. Thakur and his father Prem Kumar Dhumal had already begun canvassing in the constituency even before the official announcement of his candidature. However, anti-incumbency is the biggest challenge for the former BCCI chief.
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