Politicians in Himachal Pradesh are relaxing, only with bated breath till the Assembly poll results are out on 18 December, one month and nine days after the state went to elections on 9 November.
The politically aware and active hill folks are discussing poll probabilities, often debating it out on streets, offices, coffee houses, shops and just everywhere, the politicians sound uneasy, as they keep themselves busy with personal chores and some introspection.
The bureaucrats, although happy in this state of suspended animation in Himachal Pradesh with not much work to do, are utilising the time exploring ‘safe posting’’ in the next government, especially as state is witness to large scale shuffling at all levels, in case of change in power.
“There is lot of political tagging of officers in Himachal Pradesh of late and our own colleagues do it. We need to clarify the issue of loyalty for better relationship with probable bosses,” confided a high up.
Himachal went to polls with 60 out of 68 sitting MLAs throwing their hats in the ring again.
The state has seen Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alternating power over the last 32 years in the absence of any third alternative.
In 2012 Assembly polls, the Congress had wrested power from the BJP by getting 36 seats.
The BJP finished with 26, while one went to BJP’s splinter group, Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) and five to independents (who were rebels of either the BJP or the Congress).
Even this time, on half a dozen seats each, the rebels of two parties have queered the pitch for official candidates.
What makes the battle in Himachal keener is the opposition BJP’s flip-flop in deciding the poll strategy. The BJP, which started with a clear advantage of HP’s history of change in power every five years and hoped for a sweep the polls on the issue of ‘non-performance’ of Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, showed some signs of confusion in the midst of poll campaign.
The BJP switched from the experiment of ‘Modi face’ (that it did in other states) to CM’s face for Himachal just eight days before polls and declared former CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal, 73, as its chief ministerial face.
The Congress, however, went to polls with much clarity on leadership issue, declaring six-time CM, Virbhadra Singh, 83, as its leader again.
Seemingly, as the poll campaign picked, the Congress party, which was initially dubbed as ‘very weak’ in the electoral fight after five years performance, was seen coming back in fight, considering the scenario, constituency wise.
And this reportedly made BJP retract on its stand of 60 seats to 50 plus and now, in inner circles, to a minimum of 40-42 seats. The Congress men hope that the party may manage to get simple majority for repeat.
“The BJP is forming the next government. We will get comfortable majority (May be 50 seats). We have got the post-poll feedback and have analysed at a meeting earlier this week,” said state BJP chief, Satpal Singh Satti.
State Congress chief, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu contradicts: “We will repeat. Our organisational structure was strong and we gave ticket to so many new faces. There were issues like price rise, GST and demonetisation against BJP and most people now dislike Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s policies.”