Mahajan, a former minister and a close loyalist of ex-Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh, had joined the BJP in September 2022, just a few months ahead of the Assembly elections. He was the working president of the state Congress when he quit the party.
In a twist of events, the BJP fielded ex-Congress minister Harsh Mahajan against his former party colleague Abhishek Manu Singhvi, an eminent jurist and parliamentarian, as their candidate for Rajya Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday.
Mahajan, a former minister and a close loyalist of ex-Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh, had joined the BJP in September 2022, just a few months ahead of the Assembly elections. He was the working president of the state Congress when he quit the party.
The move to field Mahajan as BJP nominee comes despite the party having MLAs less than the Congress in the 68-member Legislative Assembly.
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Congress has a maximum of 40 MLAs, BJP 25 and three are independents.
BJP is counting on the non-Himachali candidature of Singhvi, and defections to tilt votes in favour of Mahajan. They are trying to exploit fault lines within the Congress as sections of MLS’s are upset over not being chosen as either minister or Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS). Earlier, some had even taken to social media to give vent to their feelings.
Mahajan went to file his nomination papers accompanied by State BJP president Rajeev Bindal, former CM and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, MP Suresh Kashyap and Rajya Sabha member Sikander Kumar.
Congress candidate Singhvi filed his nomination in the presence of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Ex-CM Chattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel, Himachal Congress in-charge Rajeev Shukla, State Congress President Pratibha Singh, Cabinet ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries.
The three independent MLAs had attended the Congress Legislative party meeting on Wednesday and announced their support to Singhvi.
With the newly evolved political situation, speculations of cross voting poses a stern challenge to the Congress that has a sizable strength to win the seat.
According to BJP sources, their party is in touch with the independent MLAs and even a few Congress MLAs.
The Rajya Sabha polls are scheduled for February 27.
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