After the announcements of party tickets of both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress for ensuing Assembly polls on 9 November, the open rebellion by party cadres is spelling trouble for the leadership of both the parties.
The worst affected districts by rebellion in Himachal Pradesh are Kangra, Mandi, Shimla, Solan and Bilaspur which constitute more than half of the total seats (i.e. 42 seats out of total 68 seats).
BJP had declared candidates for all the 68 seats while Congress has announced candidates on 59 seats and the candidates for remaining 9 seats are likely to be declared by soon.
Many of the strong candidates for the party tickets have been ignored by senior leadership of both the parties, leading resentment among hopefuls as well as party cadres.
In many seats of Kangra, Shimla, Solan, Mandi and Bilaspur districts, the rebels as well as party cadres have openly protested against the party’s decision.
In some cases, the candidates along with their supporters have given ultimatum to party leadership to change the selected candidates or else they had threaten to resign and fight the elections against the official candidate as an independent.
Though the party leaderships of both Congress and BJP have cited independent surveys as the basis for allotting tickets but the candidates along with their supporters are adamant on their demand.
There are over 15-20 Assembly segments in the state where the BJP is facing dissent while in Congress, the major infighting is being witnessed on 10-15 Assembly seats.
Some of such seats, where both the parties are facing rebellion, are Shimla, Rampur, Rohroo, Chopal, Palampur, Kangra, Shahpur, Nurpur, Dharamshala, Bilaspur, Jhanduta, Ghumarwin, Mandi, Sundernagar, Dharampur, Solan and Nalagarh.
Even Hamirpur and Una districts are also facing similar situations on 2-3 Assembly segments.
“We have developed a mechanism wherein senior leaders of the party are trying to pacify the dissidents,” Ganesh Dutt, state BJP vice president told The Statesman.
He said the party is hopeful of resolving the crisis with discussions and the party would score huge victory in the ensuing assembly polls.
“It is in the best interests of all that party workers start campaigning for official candidates and ensure their victory instead of working against the interests of the party,” he said, adding the party would be able to pacify such candidates and convince them to withdraw their nominations.
Meanwhile, state Congress spokesperson IN Mehta said the dissidents should accept the decision of party high command as the candidates have been selected after detailed deliberations with state leaders.
“It is the duty of each Congress worker of accept the decision of Central leadership to fulfill ‘Mission Repeat’ in Himachal Pradesh. However, the senior leaders would hold discussions with such workers and try to quell dissidence over official candidate soon,” Mehta told The Statesman.