All is not well in ruling Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh with their high commands seemingly demoralising party rank and file, making the poll battle tougher for them.

The BJP cadres, who waited in wings for poll announcement, thinking that the Opposition is advantaged by the psyche of change every five years in HP, are confused at the moment.

The BJP high command’s silence over chief minister’s face has squeezed the enthusiasm in BJP, particularly in the faction headed by former CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal, as he led the Assembly polls in HP since 1998 being popular leader from Hamirpur.

“The party’s decision to not to have CM’s face, vis a vis Congress, which has declared six time Virbhadra Singh as its leader in the polls, reflects the overconfidence of the party high command. It may not augur well for BJP in state,” shared some BJP men.

More so, the decision of BJP to go by its own feedback than to take senior BJP leaders, along in ticket allotment despite marathon discussions in Delhi over the last week has already left many BJP men in HP fuming.

“The final decision is always taken by the party high command. They did involve the state leaders in finalising tickets,” the state BJP Chief, Satpal Singh Satti told The Statesman.

He said the delay in declaration of tickets has actually led to confusion.

On the other hand, in Congress, the flip-flop by high command has added to bitterness in party factions headed by six times CM, Virbhadra Singh and his rivals. In a balancing act, the Congress high ups, however, tried to placate octogenarian Singh, a popular leader, by declaring him as CM face again for 2017 polls earlier this month. And the Congress vice president, Rahul Gandhi during his rally on 7 October in Mandi projected that Virbhadra would lead poll campaign in HP.

This was against the stand taken by All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and party incharge for HP, Sushil Shinde, who talked of going to polls with ‘collective leadership’ just few days before, showing reluctance to even have a CM face this time in HP.

Later, the party high command made Sukhu as a campaign committee incharge only to revert even this decision on Monday evening, holding that Virbhadra, not Sukhu, would head a Congress campaign committee in HP polls.

“The Congress high command is bowing down to the pressure tactics of state leaders. Whichever, faction is able to convince the leaders in Delhi at a point of time get the decision made in its favour,” said Congress insiders.

Sukhu, however, said the Congress high command takes into consideration different factors. “They said sitting CM heads the campaign committee in polls, so changed my name.”

Not surprisingly, it is a common feeling in both the parties that some unexpected candidates may get tickets this time, which may spoil the ground even more.