Both the top leaders of the BJP and Congress are campaigning with several handicaps as the deadline for voting in the Assembly polls is drawing closer. In all previous elections, the heat had picked up considerably and could be felt all over the state. Campaigning seems to be rather dull and cold this time.

To begin with, the Election Commission announced the schedule a bit late, leaving much less time for campaigning in the hard terrain of these hills which makes travelling long distances tiring and time-consuming. Selection of candidates, pacifying the disappointed aspirants, efforts to persuade rebel candidates to withdraw in favour of official candidates, etc., consumed most of the time initially. Then came the most controversial question ~ who will be the Chief  Minister if a particular party wins? In other words, under whose leadership will a party fight the election?

The Congress stole a march in announcing that incumbent Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would again head the government in case of the party’s victory. This late announcement by the party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at a public rally set a few hearts burning in the party. There were many dissident leaders who had been nursing ambitions to occupy the top ‘gaddi’, and were anyway against the Raja Sahib’s ways of functioning and the power wielded by those close to him. Sukh Ram and his son Anil Sharma (who was minister in the Virbhadra Cabinet) moved over to the BJP which gave him a ticket for fighting the election.

This again set a few BJP hearts burning: “He enjoyed the Malai (the cream) all these five years in the Congress government, and now he wants it again in BJP government”. The workers and ticket aspirants for the constituency became a fairly dispirited lot. Similarly, Prime Minister Modi’s choice, Indu Goswami, has upset Shanta Kumar’s candidate, Parveen Sharma who had won the Assembly election in 2007 . He was so upset that he is now an independent candidate against Goswami. Both he and former Transport Minister Kishan Kapoor (when denied the ticket initially) were seen crying in public.  Scores of such cases have thoroughly disturbed equations and loyalties in both BJP and Congress.

As a result, both Prem Kumar Dhumal and Virbhadra Singh have become loners of a kind in their parties. Amit Shah’s announcement of the two-time chief minister Dhumal as the CM candidate has ruffled feathers of some stalwarts in the party. The extremely delayed announcement had by then given hope (also due to media hype) to people like J P Nadda, Jairam Thakur and others. While Nadda has nothing to lose, other aspirants saw it as a setback to their chances. This had happened in Congress also, thanks to the dilly-dallying by the party high command in naming Singh as the big choice.

Aspirants like G S Bali and Kaul Singh were obviously let down by the Delhi bosses. Bali, the former Transport Minister, was reported to have been in regular touch with the BJP bosses, probably discussing his chances of moving over from the Congress. “Of course, it could not have been a love chat, he must have negotiated for a position in case of BJP coming to power,” said a partyman. While Bali is expected to win his seat of Nagrota Bagwan (from whichever party he contested) his clout among the public outside his constituency is debatable.

Shifting Dhumal from his traditional bastion to a new constituency Sujanpur has put immense pressure on him. His rival Rana (Congress) is no pushover and his resources and influence among the people are reported to be very high indeed. Dhumal too has a big battle on his hands there.

Similarly, Virbhadra Singh who is contesting from Arki, a new constituency for him,  has a huge battle to face. The BJP and its star campaigners are focusing on Arki constituency so that Singh would be confined largely there. In fact, the list of BJP’s star campaigners like Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, etc., is much longer and stronger than the Congress list of Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Captain Amarinder Singh, etc. Moreover, the weightage attached to Virbhadra Singh’s emotional contact with the people (acknowledged even by his rivals), with his general reputation for keeping his promises, has no match among the campaigners from outside, irrespective their positions at the Centre.

But the question remains — If the Congress wins the election in the state, will the BJP government at the Centre back the development projects in Himachal? Or, will it starve the state government of  resources? These are among many questions doing the rounds among the people.

On his part, Dhumal too, in his last two terms as chief minister of the state, earned the reputation for credibility. His campaigning should ordinarily be the party’s biggest asset but is there enough time for him to achieve the desired goal?

Interestingly, Virbhadra Singh has claimed a deep financial crunch because his bank accounts have been sealed by the Modi government. “I have no money left for campaigning because the ED and Income Tax Department have sealed my bank accounts,” he said. According to reports, the chief minister is unable to get the party helicopter regularly for the campaign and is forced to travel by road. The old war-horse is waging a largely lone battle.

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